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.

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TELEOGENESIS 1)

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"Goal formulation" as a property of systems able to generate their own goals.

N.A. COULTER Jr. proposed the concept of teleogenetic system, or teleogenetic control systems, which "have the capacity to generate their own goal" and "exhibit goal-seeking behavior", i.e. "searching for a goal to seek" (1968, p.85).

According to COULTER, such systems would have the following capabilities:

"1. Teleological (goal-seeking) behavior. It should be capable of controlling an output quantity in such a way that it conforms to a "goal signal"…

"2. Teleogenesis (goal-formulation). It should be capable of proposing goals within the range of capability of its teleological mechanism.

"3. Forecasting. On the basis of sensed data about the controlled quality (in the absence of action by the teleogenetic system) it should be capable of predicting outcomes if a proposed goal is adopted by the system.

"4. Evaluation. In terms of values (either initially endowed or accumulated by "experience") it should be capable of assigning worthvalues to the forecast outcome spectrum associated with each goal, and computing a global worth-function for the decision process.

"5. Decision. In accordance with some decision procedures, the system should be capable of selecting one of the proposed goals and committing the system to that goal" (p.85-6).

COULTER's proposal does not seem to have been further researched or applied, save quite recently by G.G. JAROS in South Africa (1994, p.5) (see: Teleos; teleonics). However, its relation with the perceptron and the more recent self-organizing networks is obvious.

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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