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

COMPLEXITY of systems 1)

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H. SIMON enumerates the following criteria of complexity in systems:

"1. Systems with many components may be considered complex compared with systems which have few. Thus the cardinality of a set may be considered as a measure of its complexity

2. The systems where there is much interdependence between components are generally considered more complex than those with less interdependence between them

3. Systems which are "undecidable" may be considered complex when compared with deterministic ones

4. Complexity of systems may be measured by their information content, in the sense of SHANNON WEAVER. By this criterion, systems with many identical components are less complex than systems of similar size whose components are all different" (1990, p.126).

SIMON also points out that one may also speak of complexity of theories or problems, for example:

- according to the number of parameters or symbols needed in a theory

- according to the number of elementary operations that must be computed in order to solve some type of problem

- in relation with computational complexity.

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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