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.

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FIELDS (Interactions between) 2)

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F. ROBB writes: "In general any nonequilibrium distribution of matter/energy can be described as a flow field embedded in a larger flow field with which it interacts. Where the two fields interact and the field forces are mild, no new properties emerge and the processes tend to homogeneous equilibrium. Where the field forces are strong, when the gradient is steep relative to the diffusion potential of the uncorrelated interactions of the components at the interface, then, subject to the constraints in the field, emergent evolutionary behavior is observed" (1990, p.390-91).

He adds, quoting R. SWENSON: "… in coherent fields, the emergence of structure is the most probable, indeed the inexorable, outcome of change in time. Structure building is the preferred route to equilibrium in what SWENSON calls an "incommensurable" universe. It is preferred because it is the fastest, the most efficient' way to maximize entropy production" (Ibid).

The connexion with PRIGOGINE's thermodynamics of open systems faraway from equilibrium is obvious.

Very similiar ideas were also exposed under the guise of a theory of vortexes (or whirlpools) by the French engineer Ch. LAVILLE as early as 1950.

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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