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

CONNECTION 1)2)

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A more or less permanent or repetitive interrelation between two or more elements.

Connections are of many different kinds. See: "Connections (a classification of)" and "connection modes"

Any connection implies the propagation of some flow from one element to the other(s). The flows may be of matter, energy or information, inasmuch as it is possible to distinguish them.

The interrelation is either one-way, or reciprocal.

Connections in a system can generally be represented through graphs or matrixes. This is more easy for ergodic systems, after a statistical study of the succession of states.

W. PAULI observed long ago (1954) that the use in physics of "statistical laws of nature with primary probabilities" shows a tendency to amplify the older more narrow idea of "causality (determinism)"to a more general form of "connections" in nature (1954, p. 301)

Indeed it has been seen more recently that connections may be inscribed in self-organized criticality, in fractals and in chaotic interrelations.

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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