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

FLUCTUATION (Critical) 1)2)

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I. PRIGOGINE states: "We have shown that it is only in the case of linear systems that the small fluctuation can be described by POISSON's formula… For nonlinear systems farfrom equilibrium, the distribution law of the fluctuations of the reacting substances is not that of POISSON… the fluctuations are local events, and one must consider a supplementary parameter scaling the extension of the fluctuations. This will be a new characteristic length determined by the intrinsic dynamics of the system and independent of the dimensions of the reacting volume. Thus, there is an essential difference in the behavior of the fluctuations depending on their spatial extension… This… implies that… only fluctuations of a sufficient extension can attain enough importance to compromise the stability of the macroscopic state considered.

"Thus our recently developped theory leads quite naturally to the notion of a critical fluctuation as a perequisite for the appearance of an instability" (1976, p.117).

PRIGOGINE also states: "It is the fluctuation that can force the system to leave a given macroscopic state and lead it on to a new state which has a different one" (1976, p.39).

In still another paper, I. PRIGOGINE et al. write: "In dissipative structures,… the macroscopic order which arises after an instability is determined by the fastest growing fluctuation" (1975, p.38).

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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