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

EQUILIBRIUM (Multiple) 1)2)

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"An area of catastrophe theory in which system behavior can flip unexpectedly from one attracting equilibrium to another" (K.DE GREENE, 1988, p.286).

DE GREENE emphasizes this type of equilibrium in relation to his study of the interconnections of cycles. He states: "In catastrophe theory the attractors are static equilibrium points. As a control parameter(s) "drags along" a behavior variable, the system may cross a discontinuity or catastrophic point, line, or surface and jump to another equilibrium manifold. This activity illustrates multiple-equilibrium behavior" (1994, p.8).

Unexpected flips occur when the superposition of various cycles of different lengths converge unto a same point and moment, which thus comes to be an unstability threshold.

The switching from one to another equilibrium corresponds to the switching from one attractor, corresponding to one phase, to another one.

Multiple equilibria, far from being merely an economic phenomenon, constitute a general model of behavior of many classes of systems.

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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