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

STRUCTURES of a SYSTEM (Basic) 2)

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J.de ROSNAY enumerates thus the basic structures of any system:

"- Elements or components, that can be counted and assembled into categories, families or populations: molecules, cells, inhabitants, machines, goods

- A limit, that defines the borders of the systems and separates it from the external world: membranes, the hide, the borders of a country

- Stores into which elements can be collected and wherein energy, information or matter may be kept: organs, tanks, computer memories, libraries, films

- A communication net, that permits exchanges of energy, information or matter among the systems elements or stores: nerves, arteries, roads, canals, cables, pipelines, etc… "(1990, p.98-9).

There are generally different kinds of elements, subsystems, stores and communication nets in a system. (Elements can constitute ordered subsystems of different types).

As to the limit, or border, it is as much an exchange structure as a separator.

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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