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

DRIVER (Fundamental system) 1)2)

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"A system variable at the heart of the driving mechanism of the system" (K.E.F. WAD, 1992).

The FSDs are "variables (that) override all other systems variables in their dynamic behavior on the system" (Ibid). They could also be called "basic survival variables".

WATT uses FSDs as a forecasting tool, to be applied to what he considers as the long-term trends (i.e. covering decades and centuries – as opposed to extrapolations from short-term trends), most basic for the future of mankind as a whole.

WATT considers present or probably imminent global perturbations: mass epidemics (AIDS), evolution of energy prices, climate change, total traffic jam and global pollution. All are obviously probable results of unsustainable exponential long-term trends

→ ("Evolutive acceleration").

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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