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

HETEROGENEITY and DECOUPLING 1)2)

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The subdivision of a system into functional subsystems is useful in order to isolate the various subsystems from many disturbances.

Each subsystem must take charge only of some quite specific disturbances, related to its function, but protects the system as a whole against them with an enhanced efficacity.

Such a decoupling thus allows for a significant increase of the global efficiency of the system.

This acquired superiority of very heterogeneous systems over the less differentiated ones is generally obvious and explains possibly the universal trend towards the emergence of more and more complex systems, whose flexibility and adaptiveness is considerably enhanced by heterogeneity. This applies equally to individual systems and to populations.

As noted by C. HOLLING, decoupled heterogeneity also enhances systems resilience. (1976, p.80-82).

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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