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.

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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.

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CONTROL OR CONSTRAINT 2)3)

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There is a subtle difference between both concepts. F. HEYLIGHEN writes:"… control is certainly a form of constraint. The basic difference seems to me that control requires a controller, that is to say a system separate from the system being controlled. In the concept of constraint it is not necessary (though it is possible) to situate the constraint in a separate system, the "constrainer". A constraint may be inherent in the system being constrained: the system may simply be the result of natural selection" (pers. comm.).

At least in living systems and in social ones, the system starts with its constraints, which give it its basic autopoietic characteristics.

As to control, HEYLIGHEN continues: "With control on the other hand, that control resides in a separate system, implies that there must be channels of interaction between controller and controlled. These channels will not be perfect. That means that information will not be transmitted completely or instantaneously. That implies that a variation of the controlled system cannot be exactly constrained: there will always be a delay between the start of the variation and the reaction of the controller constraining that variation. (Ibid).

In synthesis, control is by necessity somewhat imprecise and submitted to time lags. This means that any (human) controller should better be cautious and somewhat skeptical about the hoped for results.

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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