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.

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MACROSCOPE 3)

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"A symbolic tool, made of a set of methods and techniques taken from very different disciplines… to give a new (global) look into nature, society and man" (1975, p.10).

J.de ROSNAY states that the macroscope is not to be used to see farther away, or to blow up, but to observe that which is at the same time too big, too slow and too complex for our direct perception. As an example he gives human society "that gigantic organism totally invisible to us".

He adds: "In relation to society, we are today these particles and we must focus our attention on these systems which include us in order to understand them better, if they are not to destroy us. Roles are reversed: it is no more the biologist who observes the living cell with a microscope; it is the cell itself which, through the macroscope examines the organism which contains it" (p.11).

Of course, as noted by H.T. ODUM, the macroscope is systems science, used for "acquiring ways to discern the broad future and mechanisms of a system of parts" (1971, p.10). ODUM proposes the following way for the practical use of the so-called macroscope:

"1. Survey, identify, classify

2. (Use a) detail eliminator. Prepare a network diagram of compartments

3. Determine flows

4. Simulate by a simplified circuit model

5. Experiment and manage (through a) demonstrator of overall function principles

6. Manage with actions" (Ibid.).

We should add: "Observe results" and, "Recycle the whole process all over again, and again.

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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