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.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

SEGMENTATION 2)4)

Condition of a system such that each component is a structural and functional replicate of every other.

Be it in genetics, in pattern recognition, or in sociosystems, segmentation takes place according to interacting rules.

The concept has been used by L.A. WHITE (1959, p.145-149), who observes that: "The process of segmentation is observable everywhere and on all levels of organization, physical, biological, and social" and adds: "We now come face to face with a very interesting and apparently fundamental principle: any system, whether it be a segment itself or an organization of segments, has a maximum limit of size".

WHITE gives a number of physical, chemical and biological examples and concludes: "Thus we observe two aspects of material systems of this sort:

"1. Units tend to combine and form integrated systems.

"2. The integrative process cannot form larger and larger systems indefinitely; there is a maximum size and limit for each kind of system" (Ibid, p.146).

WHITE applies this concept to human societies and finds that it is the basic mechanism of emergence of more complex socio-cultural systems.

C. FRANÇOIS showed that the level of complexity thus attained is related to the degree of mental and technological development of each human group and that there is an evolution toward the emergence of ever less numerous, but more complex ones (1993, p.74).

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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