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

TRIGGER EFFECT 1)2)

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An initially small variation in a process, which may initiate an amplifying mutual causal process.

A trigger effect may, in some cases, "give rise to rapid and unexpected changes" (F. ROBB, 1989, p.54).

It corresponds to the sudden dissipation of a quantity of potential energy, many times in a quite explosive way. Of course, a potential for instability must exist, if regulation by negative feedbacks and homeostasis are to be overcomed.

Being the case, the onset of growing and eventually, giant fluctuations may lead to the eventual destruction or transformation of the system.

Trigger effects come in very different scales in time and space. The most insidious are the ones resulting from a long and slow accumulation of some stress in the system, as for example the sudden rupture of equilibrium in a sismic fault, or arterial embolism resulting from a blood clot.

At the planetary system level, man's brain may be the most important source of trigger effects, due to its very high rate of energy processing.

→ Criticality, Nucleation

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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