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

CORRELATION DEVICE 1)2)

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As early as 1924, A. LOTKA observed that, what he was calling "natural mobile transformators", i.e. animals, could be autokinetic only as much as they were able to adjust their behavior to the variable circumstances of their environment. In order to do this, they need an internal device able to represent to themselves any variation of their relation with their environment. LOTKA introduced the term "depictor", to designate such a device and described it as follows:"The depictors include first the Receptors or Organs of Special Sense (eyes, ears, nose, etc…); and second the Elaborators, whose function is to combine and further elaborate the crude information furnished by the senses. The physical location and structure and mode of operation of the elaborators is much less obvious than that of the receptors. In fact, we ordinarily recognize them rather as faculties (Memory, Reason) than as organs.

"Another set of organs and faculties, the Adjustors, determine the particular reactions, the behavior of the organism, in the light of the information brought in by the receptors and further elaborated by the elaborators…

"The last step, action, commonly involves the use of members, or motor organs, effectors, such as wings, feet, hands, etc… In complicated cases, as in human behavior, the elaborators may also play an important role in the effector step of the process by which motion is correlated to environment, behavior adapted to circumstances" (1956, p.340)

In this case, prediction and planning do appear and a unique and immediate behavior is replaced by a sequence of planned projected behaviors, oriented towards the future and with specified schedule. Such a device is obviously indispensable in any artificial intelligent system, endowed with autonomous behavior. LOTKA himself described such an automaton (a mechanical walking beetle).

The analogy of the correlation device with some of J.G. MILLER's critical subsystems is striking.

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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