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

SOURCE 2)4)5)

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1. A fixed point that repels all the points in its neighborhood.

A source is the topological opposite to a sink. It acts as a kind of negative or anti-attractor.

2. A place or system in the environment wherefrom a system receives some specific inputs.

Some sources provide absolutely indispensable resources to the system, as for example the atmosphere for aerobic living systems. Other may provide it with merely useful resources, as for example some kinds of non basic foods.

Other sources may be downright noxious for the system, when it is obliged to absorb what they produce: this is the basic problem of contamination.

Systems need maintain a stable relation with their sources, according to their needs. A system which depletes some of its indispensable sources may find itself in danger if the resource becomes unable to regenerate at a sufficient rate.

Various systems may compete to obtain resources from the same source. This becomes frequently a cause of conflict. Later on it may however lead to some form of negociation between them and the setting up of some regulator whose cost is less than the global losses incured previously.

Ecological co-evolution of populations of different species reflect the competition for the use of different sources, through ever-changing spontaneous regulation.

The interrelations between different sources and systems can be easily represented by qualitative graphs and also frequently quantified by appropriate measurement.

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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