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.

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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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HELIX 1)2)

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The trajectory in time of a cyclical process.

The helix can be cylindrical, or conical.

A cylindrical trajectory corresponds to dynamic stability of the function or system thus modelized. The conical helix (i.e. the spiral) when opening, corresponds to an expansive process, that may eventually end up in a runaway event. The closing helix indicates a trend toward asymptotic stability.

Ch. LAVILLE showed that helices are brachystochronic trajectories in a vortex, i.e.: "… the trajectory corresponding to the highest velocity or the least energetic expense ". joining the starting point and the terminal one" (1950, p.51).

This explains the relative predominance of helicoidal movements and forms in nature, in relation with the least possible production level of entropy in dynamically stable systems.

H.C. SABELLI states that the helix is a representation of dialectic movement: "… because evolution has two components: 1) a reversible change in which thesis and antithesis symmetrically negate each other and the synthesis represents a retum to the thesis, following its definition as a negation of the negation; and 2) a non-reversible process for which all three stages represent a movement in the same direction" (1994, p.353).

→ Vortex

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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