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

RANDOM-CHOICE PROCESS 1)5)

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According to H.T. ODUM: "… speciation like other creative work involves a random-choice generating process, followed by a choosing system" (1971, p.159). ("choosing device" would be possibly a more suitable term).

ODUM explains: "New species are formed when new adaptations receive better loop reinforcement and reward from the system in which speciation is occuring". Here, the "system" is obviously the ecosystem, or environment.

ODUM adds: "… species are developed for the compatibility of systems. The systems view regards concurrent speciation as a coordinated adaptation to evolving networks… Speciation is best considered as the process of adapting parts (populations) to evolving systems. In human affairs the evolution of specialized industries with their specialized occupational populations is an equivalent process: each industry receives its selective reinforcement according to its economic reward for contribution to other circuits" (Ibid).

The choosing device tends thus to reinforce the network's coherence and, eventually to expand its scope.

An interesting parallelism can be traced with P. VENDRYES' concept of autonomy through probability selection mechanisms.

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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