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.

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

ULTRAVARIABILITY 1)2)

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"The repeated and qualitatively heightened capacity for change" (V. KREMYANSKIY, 1969, p.132).

As he refers himself to ultrastability and variability as they have been studied by ASHBY, KREMYANSKIY writes: "It is known that the latter serves as a means for attaining stability (stabilizing variability); but, in addition (and this is far more important in biological systems), it serves as a means for developing new forms both of the species' stability and also of the variability itself (form-creating variability). It is easily shown that an increased number of components (…) increases variability and has several other advantages" (Ibid).

The concept of ultravariability evoques also the swift and deep upheavels in evolution, to which S.J. GOULD and N. ELDREDGE give the name of punctuated evolution. The "increased number of components" could also be paralleled with the shaping of dissipative structures in systems submitted to giant fluctuations, phenomenon that may lead to the emergence of systems of a new type.

Ultravariability relates obviously to phenomena very different than those considered by the concepts of autopoiesis and organizational closure.

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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