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

STABILIZATION by COMPENSATION 1)

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The stabilization of a complex system, that may be submitted to chaotic dynamics is a difficult endeavor.

R. ROSEN proposed to base such stabilization on a sufficient knowledge of the "… units of function and homology of organization, rather than on units of structure…

"A corollary of this kind of viewpoint would be an insight into mechanisms by which changes of state of all kinds of systems could be directed (or controlled) through the external enhancement of the stabilizing or destabilizing forces inherent in the system (The inhibitory or excitatory factors respectively). Indeed, we can intelligently apply controls only when these factors and their dynamical roles have been identified, whether that be in human physiology (i.e. medicine), in ecology, or in socio-political or economic systems" (1974, p.173).

ROSEN himself admits that this "… is not a finished piece of scientific activity ready for applications, but only a program for such activity, a strategy" (Ibid).

Indeed, the possibilities of correction of chaotic dynamics, for example, remain still largely in 1997 a "terra incognita".

The alternative use of inducers and repressors, as observed by ROSEN, or in cybernetic terms, of combined positive and negative feedbacks are possible mechanisms for stabilization. But the main point remains the need for a sufficient knowledge of the natural dynamics of the interested system.

A closely related view is stabilization by competition, proposed by M. EIGEN and P. SCHUSTER within the frame of their hypercycle model (1979, p.VI).

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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