International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

Condition of a system such that each component is a structural and functional replicate of every other.

Be it in genetics, in pattern recognition, or in sociosystems, segmentation takes place according to interacting rules.

The concept has been used by L.A. WHITE (1959, p.145-149), who observes that: "The process of segmentation is observable everywhere and on all levels of organization, physical, biological, and social" and adds: "We now come face to face with a very interesting and apparently fundamental principle: any system, whether it be a segment itself or an organization of segments, has a maximum limit of size".

WHITE gives a number of physical, chemical and biological examples and concludes: "Thus we observe two aspects of material systems of this sort:

"1. Units tend to combine and form integrated systems.

"2. The integrative process cannot form larger and larger systems indefinitely; there is a maximum size and limit for each kind of system" (Ibid, p.146).

WHITE applies this concept to human societies and finds that it is the basic mechanism of emergence of more complex socio-cultural systems.

C. FRANÇOIS showed that the level of complexity thus attained is related to the degree of mental and technological development of each human group and that there is an evolution toward the emergence of ever less numerous, but more complex ones (1993, p.74).