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

PATTERNING (Dynamic) 2)

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"The aggregate effects of energy flows which emerge from collective or aggregate relation in networks" (V. ROWLAND, 1976, p.121).

This effect corresponds to the synchronization of interconnected effects.

ROWLAND gives the following example: "Electrical generators with their own governors vary somewhat around the 60 cycle frequency. When connected up in parallel, however, those generators running too slow are speeded up and those too fast, slowed down. The combined compensations of the whole network produce a very stable 60 cycles per second. However, if these generators are linked up in series they do not stabilize each other in terms of the electrical feedbacks inherent in a parallel arrangement.

"Thus… the dynamic patterning refers to a stabilizing of a frequency which is produced not by the elements of the system but rather by the manner in which they are interconnected or related" (Ibid).

The same effect also appears, for example, in ASHBY's homeostat and has been shown by KATCHALSKY et al. to exist in brain cells assemblies (Ibid).

It is also present in ecosystems.

It is the result of the existence of various initial conditions, submitted however to a basic global superseeding determinism (See: chaos).

Dynamic patterning is a very basic coherence condition in networks and complex systems, in which it provides a diffuse and distributed, but at the same time, global control.

In accordance with PRIGOGINE's extension of thermodynamics to open dynamic systems, ROWLAND also observes that dynamically maintained patterns: "… require the dissipation of energy for their maintenance" (p.123).

→ "Oscillators (Coupled)"

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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