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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ORDER (Random) 2)3)

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This somewhat paradoxical notion is explained in the following way by D. BOHM and F.D. PEAT: "… a random order can be defined as a special case of a chaotic order. It has the following characteristics:

1. It is of infinite degree

2. It has no significant correlations or stretches of suborder of low degree

3. It has a fairly constant average behavior and tends to vary within a limited domain. This domain remains more or less constant, or else it changes slowly" (1987, p.127).

The authors state: "This definition of random order accounts well for the distribution of shots from a fixed gun".

However, they recognize that: "… if the context is extended, then each shot becomes more nearly predictable. For example, if the wind velocity is measured, or if variations in the gun emplacement are observed, then more information is available to determine the new context and individual variations can be calculated. This emphasizes again that the notion of randomness is inherently context-dependent" (Ibid.).

In synthesis, in conformity with chaos theory, there is no absolute randomness (i.e. randomness of infinite degree), nor absolutely predictable order.

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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