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 (Selective content of) 1)

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"A measure of the unforeseeableness of a representation" (D. Mac KAY, 1969, p.176).

Mac KAY states: "This is a relative measure, depending on the number of distinct results which are regarded as equally probable by the observer.

"The result observed is thought of as specifying one of a number of possibilities already contemplated by the observer as forming an ensemble in defined proportions" (p.174).

By "ensemble" Mac KAY means: "A set of possibilities, each of which has a defined probability" (p.175).

The concept is close to VENDRYES' one of "subjective probability": Probable (more or less so) is any event which did not yet occured (or, from a different viewpoint, has not yet been observed).

Mac KAY still adds: "Selective information-content in fact measures not a stuff but a relation, and is not defined unless both terminals of the relation are specified" (p.77). See "Formation of meanings".

In a slightly different meaning, information is selective as it carries "difference, distinction, order, constraint, pattern, etc… " (G. ANDERSEN, 1995).

G. BATESON made a similar point when defining information as "Any difference that makes a difference" (1979, p.228)

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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