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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DATA ANALYSIS 2)

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T. BAUMGARTNER et al. state: "A major task of data analysis is to assist in the choice between alternative models. The question arises then, under what conditions would the analysis of empirical data suggest a multilevel system" (1976, p.36).

Besides, different possible uses of the data may imply a choice between different models to organize them. A very general problem arises from the frequent necessity to use short or very short series of data to integrate a would be long-term model, in order to obtain some forecasting power. As shown by the Italian demographers C. GINI (1952, p.81-92) and C. CIPOLLA 1973, p.63-70), imprudent extrapolation can lead to quite absurd forecasts: A seemingly exponential growth at short term may very well be a logistic growth (or asymptotic, or other) when, later on, some control factors become more effective and visible.

We now moreover know that some processes are chaotic, which adds a new type of difficulty to select a really fitting model for data integration.

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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