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

REBOUND EFFECT 1)4)

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A positive feedback effect of some innovation on a specific process.

For example it frequently happens that a technical progress that helps to produce some commodity at a lesser cost and with a reduced use of energy or raw materials, induces a higher consummation of the product. This leads of course to an increase in uses of energy and raw materials. A well known example in the 19th Century was the enormous increase of steel consumption after the invention of the BESSEMER process. During the 1980s and 90s, we have witnessed the replacement of big frames computers by tens of millions of personal computers. Of course, as a result, the use of all kinds of inputs increases on a global scale. Accordingly, it is in no way certain that technical progress necessarily leads to a better global sustainability (See, for ex., the recent "Stuttgart Charta on Information Society and Sustainability" – Forum Info 2000 Bonn – July 2nd, 1998).

A sociology of the uses of artifacts would be a very needed complement to progresses in technologies in order to reach a better global evaluation of technologies weight in global human ecology.

Rebound effects have also been observed in demography: After great hecatombs through pandemics or war, the birth rate frequently surges and compensates the losses quite quickly. The same effect can be observed for instance in burnt down forests. Rebound effects are thus an obvious feature of complex systems.

In most cases, rebound effects come as a surprise to the observers.

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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