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

ADAPTABILITY 1)

The capacity of a system (particularly a living one) to accomodate its behavior to a great variety of situations.

N. RASHEVSKY observes: "A very important characteristic of an organismic set is that, while its elements can potentially exhibit a number of activities necessary for the preservation of (its) elements and of the set, in general only a subset of the set of all potentially possible activities is exhibited" (1967, p.22).

RASHEVSKY shows by a biological example that many possible adaptations remain latent if not needed, i.e. become actualized only if some environmental stimulus awakens them.

Consequently: "The wider the range of potentially possible activities of an element of an organismic set, the greater is the variety of environments in which this organismic set can survive" (Ibid)

This is in accordance with ASHBY's concept that only (internal) variety can destroy external variety.

It is also obvious that, in many organisms, if not in all of them, the full range of adaptability is never revealed.

On the other hand, as expressed by RASHEVSKY: "The adaptability may be very great but it is always limited. No set of genes, no multicellular organism, and no society can survive in every conceivable environment" (Ibid).

In any case, as observed by E. LASZLO, systems of high complexity trade stability for richness in adaptability (1972).

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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