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

METASYSTEM TRANSITION THEORY 1)2)

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A general theory of evolutionary change.

MST has been proposed by the Principia Cybernetica Group (F. HEYLIGHEN, C. JOSLYN and V. TURCHIN).

This is a theory about "the primary act of evolution, the free and spontaneopus emergence of higher levels of organization and control…

"The phenomena explained in terms of metasystem transitions include the origins of life, of sexual reproduction, of multi-cellular organisms, of neural organisms capable of coordinated action and learning, of thought and language, and of human society and industry. In the future we predict the development of global human society and human meta- or super-beings, which preserve the cybernetic organization of human minds through direct human-machine and human-human connections" (1992a, p.509).

More than a theory, this is a general hypothesis that should be researched more deeply. This is the announced goal of the Principia Cybernetica Group.

Ch. FRANÇOIS proposes an "Integrative view of Meta-System Transition" in relation to various systemic evolutive models as chaos, deviation-amplification processes, dissipative structuration, disymmetries, hypercycles, organizational closure, etc… He applies the concept to the general evolution of humanity, including the present trend toward world integration. (1995, p.173-79).

-→ System (Meta-) Transition

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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