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

GOVERNOR MECHANISM (Virtual) 1)2)4)5)

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A complex control in a network obtained through reciprocal compensation among a set of oscillating elements.

Such a mechanism is described by P. Smith CHURCHLAND, who gives the example of a set of electrical generators, each of them presenting "fluctuations of frequency of 10% around some average value"(1989, p. 365)

"Taken joined together in a suitable network, their collective frequency variability is only a fraction of that figure because, statistically, generators momentarily fluctuating behind the average output in phase are compensated for by the remaining generators, and conversely, generators momentarily ahead in phase have their energy absorbed by the remainder. The entire system functions from an input/output point of view, as a single generator with greatly increased frequency reliability, or as control engineers express it, with a single, more powerful, "virtual governor"(Ibid)

This example underline a basic characteristic of networks: Their efficiency as a whole makes them advantageous as a whole, but also for every participant. This explains how and why networks are the typical device for any kind of social organization.

→ Automata (Reliability of); Co-evolution; Correlation device; Correlation (Directive); Feedback (self-normative); Oscillator; Regulator; Reliability in dynamic terms; Sociality; Socialization

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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