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.

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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.

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SYSTEM (Dissipative) 2)

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Any system that dissipates energy, be it or not able to compensate its losses.

The structurating dissipation concept was introduced as early as 1908 by the French physicist H. BÉNARD, but was retrieved from oblivion by I. PRIGOGINE, in relation to his study of thermodynamics of systems far-fromequilibrium. (starting 1947).

In opposition to conservative systems, the dissipative one is dependent on time and thus irreversible and submitted to an attractor, as it dissipates energy.

P. BERGE, Y. POMEAU and Ch. VIDAL write: "In some cases… there exits a function of the dynamical variables, the Lyapunov function, which is positive and decreasing in a monotonic way with time (which is a proof of irreversibility)". However the Lyapunov function does not always exist. "A dissipative system may have a evolution regime quite more complicated than a simple decrease, when the dynamics include at the same time the effects of the dampening and a mechanism of maintenance of movement which fights this dampening" (1984, p.23).

In such cases, the attractor may become fractal.

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  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
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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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