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 HALF-LIFE 1)4)

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"… the amount of time for half of the given informational set presently serving as a base for tying a society successfully to it environment to become useless" (T.R. YOUNG & G. SWARTZMAN, 1974, p.260).

The authors who introduced this somewhat metaphorical concept, (obviously by analogy with half-life of radioactive compounds) used it to construct the following "general principle of irreversible sociothermodynamics:… The shorter the information half-life of a system, the shorter the turnaround time for information handling must be in order to maintain system integrity" (Ibid).

They add: "As the rate of change of a system or its environment increases, the half-life of the information stored in the system decreases. In a stable society (a society in a stable environment), the half-life of the information stored in traditions, myths, plays, and everyday wisdom is counted in the centuries and is sufficient to meet the ordinary contingencies of decision-making" (Ibid).

Elaborating on this concept, we may possibly distinguish:

- data half-life, as very short (but in any case longer for global long-term data);

- information half-life, as short to medium, according to the type of information; values and norms half-life, as long to very long

- wisdom and art half-life, as very long and even possibly limitless.

If the physical analogy may be pushed farther, the degradation of information should be asymptotic and possibly, it would never become totally extinct.

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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