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

RUNAWAY PROCESS 1)2)

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An irreversible processs through which a system is forced through an instability threshold.

Such a process implies the swift loss of dynamic stability and may lead either to the destruction of the system (f. ex. growth of a cancer), or to dissipative structuration and emergence of a higher level of complexity.

A runaway results from the action of an uncontrolled positive feedback. J. MILSUM observes:"… upper and lower constraints always exist in real systems which prevent true runaway, and may even mask the positive-loop nature of some systems when operating within these constraints" (1968, p.39).

As recorded by MILSUM, these constraints appear as "floors" and "ceilings" in BOULDING's terminology.

As also noted by MILSUM, stable systems avoid runaways by combining positive and negative loops (in this encyclopedia: compensated feedbacks).

Runaway processes are generally destructive, as for example in a fire. They may also lead to bifurcations, or "catastrophes" in R.THOM's sense, or to a higher level of stability, when triggering dissipative structuration, as viewed by PRIGOGINE's thermodynamics.

The many times used metaphor about "snowball effects" corresponds to runaway processes.

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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