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

BOUNDARY REGULATION 1)2)

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No boundary is ever absolutely closed, nor completely open. It depends on the energy flow, as noted by R.N. ADAMS, in accordance with LOTKA's Principle of maximum energy flow: "The distinctiveness and stability of the boundaries of a dissipative process vary directly with the tendency of that process to seek a minimum dissipation rate, inversely with its tendency to maximize energy flux" (1988, p.149).

As to the autonomy of the system it depends at least partly on its ability to close or open its boundary for the purpose of maintaining its dynamic stability by regulating its inputs and outputs of energy.

The study of a variety of systems shows that boundary regulation is partly automatic (by reflexes) and partly voluntary. Furthermore the deliberate part of regulation grows steadily with the complexity through the evolutive scale of systems.

As dynamic stability results generally from the cyclical or hypercyclical succession of states, boundary regulation depends on the knowledge the system has of its own states, past, present and possible futures. The heightened predictability aptitude in highly complex systems goes matched with the increase of the feedforward (i.e. willful) capacity for regulation of their boundary conditions.

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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