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 BUDGET 1)2)4)

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The inflow of energy needed by a system for its subsistance.

Any ecosystem, biological or human social system depends on energy inputs for its maintenance and dynamic stability (J.P. COLLINS et al, 2000, p. 416-25).

Stable energy inputs allow for stable energy dissipation by the system (Prigogine's Principle of minimum entropy production).

Any system starved of energy inputs and devoid of compensatory available reserves is doomed to rapid destruction.

On the contrary when a system increases its energy inputs, it becomes able to create more complex processes and structures through a more active energy dissipation and the consequent emergence process.

Such a phenomenon has dominated the evolution of mankind, particularly since the beginning of the 19th Century, to date.

However, in fact the transformation has been obtained through an enormous subsidy of non-renewable fossil energy supply. Should this supply dwindle in the future, subsequent growth and dynamic stability will depend on its sufficient replacement by a renewable supply, i.e. basically solar energy and its derived forms.

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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