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

OPTIMUM 1)2)

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The best possible condition for a system.

This very simple definition occults quite difficult problems. An optimum is generally defined by some decider in relation to some partial view of the system, corresponding to the aims sought by some subsystem. Optima are even frequently confused with maxima in specific outputs of the system. Maxima in turn, frequently can be sustained only for quite a short time, until some basic resource of the system becomes depleted. (This resource may even be the permanence of sinks able to absorb constantly the products of the system).

The basic optimal condition of a system should guarantee it an adequate stability margin, In other words, specific controls should be correctly interconnected and interacting in order to allow the system as a whole to maintain its dynamic stability.

For example, production and consumption can be maintained more or less close to an optimum if their necessary interdependence is recognized, And both can be maintained stable at long term only if their interdependence with environmental conditions is recognized and respected.

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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