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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

VARIABILITY 2 2)

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Temporal variations within a system induced by outside influences, generally rhythmical or cyclical.

This notion, introduced in this meaning by W.D. GROSSMANN and K.E.F. WATT (1992, p.8), implies a kind of consonance between the system and its environment.

The authors state: "… other variations emerge from within the system such as the heartbeat in mammals, fashions, changes of attitude, or change due to learning and inventions, genetic drift or some erratic events" (Ibid).

This seems a somewhat mixed bag. More or less regular enviromental variations may evoque characterized variability in a system (variations of metabolism, for instance). The limits of this variability are fixed by the organizational closure of the system, combined with its learning capacity. Erratic events induce variability only if the system is equipped with the needed variety. If not, it would be destroyed.

F.K. BERRIEN, inspired in ASHBY's homeostat, expressed this as follows: "The variability of a system's outputs is limited by a finite number of functions which a given component may perform and a limited number of states which the total system may assume. The limits, even with a relatively simple system, are wide" (1968, p.55).

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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