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

DIGITAL COMPUTING 5)

Computing based on the use of a code consisting of two signs or positions only.

Digitalization is the base of our actual computers, in constrast to analogue computing which uses continuous signals of variable intensity.

A. G. BARTO states: "Digital computing and discrete models are influencing our conception of real world systems and the role classical mathematics methods are to play in modeling them… " (1978, p.163). (See "Dichotomy").

Physicists, chemists, engineers, etc. accustomed to the successful use of differential equations "… have strongly developed intuitions in which continua and rates of change are powerful conceptual primitives. Those whose intuition has developed more directly under the influence of digital computing, on the other hand, find it very natural to think in terms of such concepts as algorithms, data structures and automata. In many applications of these discrete concepts, the availability of theoretical results is replaced by the computational power of digital computers" (Ibid).

This is really a very basic conceptual evolution, since, as noted by BARTO, "…actual digital computers can manipulate only finite sets" (p.164) of discrete data, while classical mathematics uses extensively the continuity and infinity concepts.

These two approaches are complementary rather than opposed to each other, but a clear understanding of their different nature is needed. See hereafter for more comments.

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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