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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CONSCIOUSNESS (Economy in) 3)

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G. BATESON observes that "… it is not conceivably possible for any system to be totally conscious" and "… every next step in the approach to total consciousness will involve a great increase in the (brain) circuitry required. It follows that all organisms must be content with rather little consciousness and that if consciousness has any useful functions whatever (which has never be demonstrated but is probably true), then economy in consciousness will be of the first importance. No organism can afford to be conscious of matters which it could deal with at unconscious levels" (1967, p.116).

This is obviously why our brain constructs first physiological, next behavioral and finally mental algorithms.

The necessity for economy in consciousnes has been neatly epitomized by the Argentine writer J.L. BORGES in his fascinating short story "Funes, el memorioso", in which he recounts the case of a man who recorded the least small details that he observed and became thus totally unable to think and to act.

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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