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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TRANSDUCER 1)2)

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Some device or system that conveys matter, energy or information from a system, or subsystem to another one or, from or to the environment.

J. MILLER defines three types of transducers: input, internal and output transducers, all related to information processing. For matter-energy transport he uses three other labels, namely: ingestor, converter and extruder, which obviously correspond to the three information transducers.

Some authors, as for example T. ÖREN use the concept of "energy transducer" in the following way:

"An energy transducer is a device that either:

1) converts an input energy into an output energy that is of a different nature than the input energy or

2) provides knowledge about the input energy.

An active transducer directly generates an output signal. A passive transducer requires additional excitation energy, which is modified by the transducer" (1990, p.12).

ÖREN distinguishes the three following types of transducers:

"The first type of transducer is an energyconverting device that can sense energy (heat, radiation, or sound) and convert it into electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic, or another form of output signal. Examples include microphones, thermocouples and piezoelectric transducers…

"The second type of transducer: 1) receives stimulation from a physical situation or condition that is the object of measurement (the measurand) and 2) converts that stimulation into a definitely associated signal that is more appropiate or convenient as input to a measurement system.

"A computer program is a knowledge transducer. Similar to any energy transducer, a computer program has an input knowledge and an output knowledge" (ÖREN, 1990, p.13).

MILLER's input, internal, and output transducers are other example of ÖREN's third type, but not only in man made mechanisms, since they exist at the eight complexity levels described by MILLER from the cell to the supranational system with various kinds of energy and information inputs and outputs.

Moreover, it seems that the word "knowledge", as used by ÖREN in the present context, could be replaced by the word "information" (see B. ZEIGLER comments on "knowledge" and internal representation, 1986).

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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