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

SYSTEM (Adaptive) 1)

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Any system able to shift from one internal state to another as a response to variations in its environment.

It would be very difficult to conceive a living or a social system that should not be adaptive, at least respect to a variety of changes relevant to its survival.

R.L. ACKOFF writes: "A system is adaptive if, when there is a change in its environmental and/or internal state which reduces its efficiency in pursuing one or more of its goals which define its function(s), it reacts or responds by changing its own state and/or that of its environment so as to increase its efficiency with respect to that goal or goals" (1972).

According to W. BUCKLEY, an adaptive system must be able to perceive variety and constraints in its environment, and to adjust its internal organization accordingly (1974).

It must necessarily have sufficient internal variety in order to shift from one adapted state to another, when needed. Furthermore, it must possess an array of positive and negative parameters defined feedbacks, that will allow it to respond to a definite range of disturbances.

Living systems in general, are more or less adaptive: Among them animal societies and populations; human individuals and sociocultural systems.

An interesting bibliography on adaptive systems is given by G. KLIR (1991, p.161).

J. HOLLAND developed a generalized and formalized model of the adaptive system (1992, p.20;24;28)

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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