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

LOGISTIC EQUATION 2)5)

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The logistic equation was introduced in 1838 by the Belgian demographer L. VERHULST. It is generally written in two different forms:

(1) Xn+1 = aXn (1 – Xn) or

(2) Xn + 1 = aXn – aXn

The aXn member expresses the progressive braking effect on growth due to some inherent constraint, activated by the systems or process growth itself. Generally speaking, this constraint is the rarefaction of the basic resource that feeds the system or process, due to its growing consumption.

As observed by C. MARCHETTI, quoted by J. CASTI, this logistic growth is characteristic of the evolution of any type of populations, even in "psychological, social, technological and political phenomena" as for example MOZART's musical works, construction of Gothic cathedrals in Europe and the volume of world airline traffic" (1994, p.37).

The braking factor can be nutrients, available space, overextension of communication lines or some limit of the brain's network combinatorics capacity.

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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