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 DYNAMICS 1)

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P.S. HENSHAW, after observing that: "Self-organizing systems are energy-information input- processor-output units, living or non-living, that are adaptive, purposive and discretionary", thus describes the basic features of information dynamics:

"1. Information seeks consistency… in systems that have capacities for memory, assimilation, integration, and selective energy distribution, including switching, channeling and gating.

"2. Information interacting with information is generative…

"3. …Accepting that information seeks consistency, it follows that consonance is a goal of information processing.

"4. Dissonance irritates, motivates, activates. It can lead toward consonance, or toward greater dissonance, involving antagonisms, aggression, chaos and destruction.

"5. Curiosity – the desire to know – is inherent in assimilation. Because information seeks consistency, mentation involves a continuous search for new information.

"6. The human mind… is inventive. It will create – even fabricate – images, explanations and concepts…" (1981, p.16).

HENSHAW also states that: "Information, like energy, exerts an influence" (p.17). However, while interesting, these ideas are somehow giving to "information" the character of a human actor.

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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