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

MODELIZATION BY COMPUTER (Limits of the) 3)5)

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P. DENNING states such limits in the following way:

"As part of our modeling efforts, we must come to understand the domains over which a given model is reliable, partly reliable, or unreliable. We must also understand the situations in which modelization can be useful as a way of grounding speculations about the future dynamics of systems.

"Systems whose rules can evolve or change in unpredictable ways are unlikely to have a reliable predictive or speculative model.

"We must be careful with the output of models, being constantly skeptical that these output are "facts" or are accurate descriptions of the world. In our technological age, it is easy to accept the claim that every phenomena can ultimately be modeled, given sufficient knowledge and computational resources. There is reason to doubt this faith.

"If our mood makes us disinclined to accept complexity, it is easy to substitute the model for reality and to confuse our opinions with "scientific facts" supported by the model"(1990, p.498).

DENNING admits however that in limited domains, it is possible to create models of complex systems with human participants. But we do not know where the limits are.

This does not preclude using computers to gather and process information and make conditional predictions, whenever possible, "namely domains in which the rules are known in advance".

"In all cases, however, we must let the computer support the decision-maker, and not let the computer make the decisions" (Ibid.).

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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