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

INFORMATION (Positional) 1)5)

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Morphogenetic information potentially present in the specific spatial interrelations of some elements in an incipient system.

This notion emerged in the 1970s (L. WOLPERT) in the study of genetically based differentiation in living beings organization. Such differentiation corresponds to chemical gradients.

The relative positions of some genes (homoebox genes) "allows one part of the embryo to be labelled as different from all other parts… Such information is present even in the unfertilized egg cell… (where) there is already a "head" end and a "tail" end.

"The amount of positional information builds up during the development of the embryo. Eventually the positional information is so complex that very small groups of ceils, destined to become a particular part of the body, can be distinguished" (S. DAY, 1990, p.4).

More generally, positional information is related to symmetry-breaking. G. NICOLlS and I. PRIGOGINE state: "Physiologically, the best known type of positional information is ensured by monotonic gradients of appropriate morphogens establishing a polarity within the field… A gradient (or more generally a primary spatial pattern) arising in this way should have some well defined reproductibility" (1978, p.26).

The notion of positional information looks like a good candidate as a general systemic concept; for the following reasons:

- it seems to be related to a universal concept of polarity

- it seems to be a bridge between levels of autopoiesis

- it connects both meanings of the concept of morphogenesis

- it makes sense in practically each level of complexity from crystals to human societies (stigmergy).

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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