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

PROCESS 1)2)

1)"Any change over time of matter, energy or information" (J.G. MILLER, 1978, p.23).

2) "A sequence of behavior corresponding to a goal-producing function in a system" (Adapted from R.L. ACKOFF, 1972).

M. CEREIJIDO writes: "Systems do not undergo processes; they are the forms that manifest the processes" (1978, p.32). Obviously, as observed by E. JANTSCH (1976), suppression of processes with the illusory goal to stabilize structures, would lead to the total (and impossible) blocking and invariability of the system, while fugacity of structures would produce a total lack of coherence in processes. In none of these cases could a system survive.

A process presents three basic aspects:

- A function of transference in time, through storage or memory;

- Functions of transfer in space, i. e. displacements or transmission;

- Functions corresponding to morphologic changes: variations in form, or of information content. (After J.C. LUGAN, 1993, p.95).

Of course, any process is energy driven and any transference is in space and time.

MILLER writes: "If the equation describing a process is the same, no matter the temporal variable, it is a reversible process; otherwise it is irreversible, or better less readily reversible" (Ibid).

He adds: "Process includes the ongoing function of a system, reversible actions succeeding each other from moment to moment… Process also includes history, less readily reversed changes like mutations, birth, growth, development, aging and death; changes which commonly follow trauma or disease; and changes resulting from learning which are not later forgotten" (Ibid).

All these "less reversible" changes are practically totally irreversible. Further comments of MILLER show that the word "reversible" must be understood as "which can be replaced or reconstructed" and not in its abstract mathematical meaning "time invariant" (see the critique of the concept of reversibility).

As to ACKOFF, he comments: "The sequence of behavior that is performed by the electronic rat constitutes a maze-solving process… The metabolic process in living things is a similar type of sequence the goal of which is acquisition of energy or, more generally, survival… Process behavior displayed by the system may be either reactive, responsive, or active" (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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