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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TRANSITION (BÉNARD's) 2)

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"The crossing from a molecular chaos dominated regime… to a much more complex one where part of the energy is transfered into macroscopic fluid currents" (adapted from R. LEFEVER, 1979, p.13).

In BÉNARD's experiment – heating a jar of water – this phenomenon starts with convection currents within the jar, replacing the simple thermic agitation. When the liquid nears the boiling point, the accelerating convection currents lead to the appearence of hexagonal structures: BÉNARD's dissipative structures. This phenomenon seemed merely a cusiosity until PRIGOGINE did generalize it as excess energy dissipation through giant fluctuations in systems far-from-equilibrium. Without such an energy flow, "the possibilities of formation of dissipative structures are absolutely negligible" (Ibid, p.15).

It is now well established that BÉNARD's transition is a very general phenomenon, even in biological and social systems, as shown for example by P.M. ALLEN's and colleagues work on urban systems (for instance 1984, p.230-248).

→ Instability (BÉNARD's)

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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