BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

About

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

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REGULATION (Polycentric) 1)2)4)

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The existence of various regulators at different levels and places in a complex system.

A completely centralized regulation in a quite complex system faces the problem of time lags: in many cases the central regulator acts upon conditions that have already changed and becomes inefficient, if not downright harmful. Moreover, when long communication lines are needed, noise may distort the information (both bottom up and top down) and induce inadequate responses.

While a global regulator is still needed in order to maintain the general coherence in the system, regulation may at least be partially decentralized. Local and specific regulators may be set up, in conformity with the heterogeneous character of the system. This leads to a degree of heterarchy, giving autonomy to functional subsystems.

This type of organization exists in physiology. It could be generalized in human systems, and even probably in complex artificial systems.

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

Publisher

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]

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