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.

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SCHOOL 1)4)5)

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A large group of fishes or other aquatic animals, swimming in a coordinated way (Synonym: shoal)

By swimming together in large numbers, the members of the school obtain a reciprocal protection because all those who are inside the shoal cannot be easily reached by any predator.

Only the peripherical individuals have incomplete protection. However all members take turns to occupy the exposed positions. A somewhat similar behavior can be observed in migrating birds (ducks, swallows, for instance)

The school phenomenon is obviously a very basic root of sociality. It shows the importance of environmental pressure that generates cohesion, coalitions, coordination (and generally what could be called "co-behavior") in groups of originally isolated individuals.

Curiously enough, the school behavior became the response of oceanic convoys to submarine attacks during World War II. This behavior was one of the first results of operation research

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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