EQUILIBRIUM (Far-from) 2)
← Back
The condition of a system undergoing ever widening fluctuations.
Such condition generally heralds the beginning of dissipative structuration, if and when an important surplus of energy is available. In G. NICOLIS and I. PRIGOGINE words: "… the distance from equilibrium and the nonlinearity may both be sources of order capable of driving the system to an ordered configuration. A highly non-trivial connection between order, stability, and dissipation appears. To indicate clearly this relation we call the ordered configurations that emerge beyond instability of the thermodynamic branch the dissipative structures" (1977, p.60)
Once crossed the instability threshold, the system's behavior undergoes a drastic change, thus described by I. PRIGOGINE: "… the thermodynamic behavior could be… in fact, even directly opposed that predicted by the theorem of minimum entropy production" (1980, p.88).
According to K.DE GREENE: "… nonequilibrium is the source of order; it brings order out of chaos… Far-from-equilibrium situations induce a new coherence among system elements via new patterns of communication" (1994, p.9).
The far-from-equilibrium condition should be clearly distinguished from the near-equilibrium one, in which the system only fluctuates moderately within narrow limits and remains homeostatic.
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: