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.

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CONTROLLER 2)

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"A natural or constructed assembly which interacts with its environment to bring about a particular stability called the "goal" or "objective" (G. PASK, 1960, p.49).

G. PASK explains: "Indeed, whenever there is a stable system, then, in principle, we can envisage a subsystem acting as the controller that maintains this stability" (Ibid).

Constructed controllers are generally based on quite simple feedbacks, but in natural systems a controller is frequently composed of a complex of countervailing feedbacks. In Markovian systems or in composite systems, no specific controller can be found: the control function, as well as the "goal" or "objective", is diffuse in the whole system and is a result of statistical interactions among the elements, within however global limiting conditions.

As to human controllers (or would-be controllers), they should never forget Sir Francis BACON warning: "Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed".

This imply a correct understanding of natural feedbacks and regulations, previously to any intervention.

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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