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

ENERGY (Embodied) 1)

← Back

The total energy that has been required – directly or indirectly – to construct a system or to produce a product.

This is a very intriguing concept. Any system, natural or constructed, is somehow a totalization of residue of former energy uses. R. CONSTANZA, (quoted by R.N. ADAMS) gives the following example: "… the energy embodied in an automobile includes the energy consumed directly in the manufacturing plant plus all the energy consumed indirectly to produce the other inputs to auto manufacturing… etc." (CONSTANZA, 1981, p.119).

The real final energy balance and rentability of nuclear power has also been questioned, because of the similar omission of "upstream" energy costs.

Even the energy consumed by the process of scientific and technical research should be accounted for in the global energy cost of products.

D. PIMENTEL, who applied energy accounting to agriculture, showed that real energy costs of industrial agriculture are rarely if ever recuperated in the energy value of the final products (1977).

Still another aspect is the omission in the final cost of replacing lost patrimonial value, as is the case, for instance of the use of non-replanted felled forests.

As to natural systems, the appearance of the GAIA concept shows a nascent conscience of the embodied energy value in natural environments, as a long term totalization during the whole process of evolution towards complexity.

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]

We thank the following partners for making the open access of this volume possible:

© 2020 BCSSS Contact/Imprint