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

LOCK-IN EFFECT 1)2)3)

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A condition in which some previously acquired characteristic in a system blocks further changes.

Existing situations tend to create "frozen cores" within systems. This is frequent in technical devices, as observed for instance by S. J. GOULD, who describes the way the old QWERTY keyboard blocks since many years the introduction of better keyboard designs (1991). It also may be the cause that slows or blocks for long time new scientific paradigms. For instance, one may think that the global view proposed by systemics is thus blocked by the dominant specialized approach.

The anonymous peer review system is instrumental in producing lock-in effects against scientific innovations, according to A. BEREZIN et al. (1995).

LOCK-IN EFFECT 1)2)

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The way a system becomes more or less irreversibly dependent on its former adaptations

This is a universal effect, from oxygen dependence for breathing of superior animals (which is absolute) to the strong dependence of modern transportation on non-renewable fossil fuels as their source of energy.

The lock-in effect may easily become dangerously critical and its possibility should be carefully evaluated when some new adaptation is considered.

This is why the principle that "fit is not forever" is important and also why adaptability is to be always maintained as much as possible.

→ Caution principle

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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