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

EPIDEMICS 1)4)5)

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The massive, swift and generally accelerating propation of some effect in a population.

The population can be vegetal, animal or human, and is in fact a more or less dense congregation of individuals in a determined area.

The effect is generally biological (some disease, for instance). In human populations it can also be psychological (a rumor, a fad, a mode or, unfortunately a fear, a panic, some fanatical creed).

The effect is generally fed by some available resource, as for example a population devoid of immunological defenses or unexperienced, gullible and devoid of psychological and rational resistance.

An epidemic generally follows an evolving curve. It begins slowly and locally. Thereafter it starts to propagate in space and its tempo accelerates under the effects of contagion, which acts as a positive feedback, favored by conditions of close proximity.

After a period of seemingly exponential expansion, it starts to slow-down, as result of the growing elimination of the low resistance individuals. This acts as a negative feedback in sparser populations.

After a time, the epidemic subsides. It may disappear entirely, because it killed all (or at least nearly all) of the susceptible individuals. The pathological effect may also maintain itself marginally, as endemic in some section of a population.

Epidemic is obviously a very general systemic process.

→ Explosive-implosive process; Growth; Meme; Pandemic; Percolation; Small world

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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