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

RESISTANCE (Acquired) 1)2)

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An adaptive and evolutive process which allows a system to successfully fight the effects of some dangerous input from its environment.

Three very important examples are:

- acquired immunity of numerous pathological micro-organisms to a growing number of antibiotics

- progressive appearance of many new strains of insects able to resist the effects of numerous chemical insecticides.

- the progressive immunization of whole human populations against some infectious diseases. This seems to have been the case with plague in Europe from the 14th Century on. (However, such immunity may be lost after long periods without new epidemics).

Acquired resistance is a systemic phenomenon showing the shifting equilibria – through adaptation and evolution – in the interrelations of systems of different kinds.

The lack of understanding of acquired resistance becomes a critical deficience in situations of accelerating change proper to our time of massive technological evolution.

An exploration of possible similar phenomena in societies could be interesting.

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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