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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DISPERSION 1)2)

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Capacity of a complex system to detect, either simultaneously or in an alternative way, some inputs or stimuli, by way of different perceptive and transmissive subsystems.

ASHBY, who introduced this notion, gives the following examples:

"The point to point representation of the retina on the visual cortex, for instance ensures that the dispersion achieved in the retina will at least not been lost (1960, p.180).

"…if a beam of radiation of wave-length 0,5µ is directed to the face, the eye will be stimulated, but not the skin; so the optic nerve will be excited, but not the trigeminal. But if the wave-length is increased beyond 0.8µ, the excitation changes from the optic nerve to the trigeminal (p.179).

In other words, dispersion enhances adaptive polyvalence.

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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