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

DYNAMICS 1)

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Classical dynamics was basically deterministic, in accordance – with linear causality, connecting variance of only one cause with the corresponding variance of one specific effect.

However, as stated by Y. SINAI, it became necessary to understand the conditions and ways by which "… a deterministic dynamics leads to the appearance of statistical laws… Secondly, why are statistical laws stable, i.e., why are they not destroyed by small noises, fluctuations, etc.? It has been believed for a long time that the appearance of statistical laws in dynamic systems was unavoidedly connected with the increase of the number of degrees of freedom allowing for corresponding averages. It is now clear that… in important classes of dynamic systems with few degrees of freedom, or even only two, a strictly deterministic dynamics leads to the appearance of statistical laws" (1992, p.70).

This understanding led to the study of ergodicity and, later on, to research into the onset of chaos and chaotic determinism. See: "Chaos (Onset of)".

From another viewpoint, dynamics does not necessarily implies continuity, at least in models. Until now, we have no way to decide about dominance of continuity or discontinuity in the real world.

A.G. BARTO writes: "The term "dynamic" was originally associated only with continuous-time models since the differential equation was the only formalism available for modeling processes which unfold in time. We now know that the idea of dynamics is more general than the differential equation" (1978, p.167).

It is indeed now possible to spread out automata's dynamics through discrete models, as seen for example in CONWAY's "games of life ", which are easily modelled on digital computers.

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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