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

QUORUM SENSING 2)4)5)

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A chemical signaling mechanism that bacteria use to find out if they are by themselves or one of a crowd (G. WATTS, 2003, p. 30)

More generally collective reaction threshold in a population signaling the onset of a common behavior.

It could very well be a fundamental condition of any socialized behavior. It seems to be the result of increasing density, the consequent reduction of interindividual distances and the increasing reciprocal perception of signals. These can be biochemical, physical, visual, or other.

J. MARCHANT reports an example observed by G. WEGRZYN on marine bacteria (2000, p.8)

WATTS explains: "Each individual secretes into the environment a low level of a certain chemical, for which it has suface receptors. The more bacteria that are around and pumping out this chemical, the higher its local concentration and the more the cell surface receptors are stimulated…

"The quorum" part of the name reflects the bacteria's need to be present in sufficient numbers to make it worthwhile to behave in a particular way, just as a political meeting needs to be quorate to take decisions. The decision bacteria need to make is whether or not to turn virulent"(p.30)

The somewhat metaphorical and anthropomorphic way to describe this process does not detract from its deep systemic significance: it amounts to the discovery at a very elemental biological level of the same process of socialization through density of interactions that also shows in ants, bees or locusts behavior. And of course, the appearance of a superior level of interactions through informations systems of various type in human kind is still another example of this very general process. Its systemic (and transdisciplinarian) meaning is obvious.

→ Co-orientation; Density (critical); Dictyostelium discoideum; Effects (mass-); Field (social); Flocking ; Herd effects; Implosion; Organizer; Overcrowding; Pheromone; Proximity; School; Stigmergy; Swarm

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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