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

REGULATION (Ergodic) 2)

A regulation that, with time, becomes independent from the initial state of the system.

J. EUGENE writes:" Only a system that counts with at least one feedback coupling is able to develop itself in an ergodic way" (1981, p.65).

The ergodic regulation corresponds to an "ergodicity domain within which the very young system may not be able to resist small disturbances. When becoming mature, the system acquires a resistance to strong disturbances, until, finally it loses any resistance to any kind of disturbance" (Ibid).

J. EUGENE adds the noteworthy following comment: "Such ergodic processes correspond to von BERTALANFFY's equifinality. Their interpretation led formerly to metaphysical finalism, specially in relation to phenomena of biological regeneration, as described by Hans DRIESCH (1909). This author sets that the organism's development is conduced by a force, which he calls "entelechy". (The concept of ergodicity) shows that finalistic and metaphysical concepts are not needed to explain the development of systems. Such development, of a dialectical nature, results of the disequilibrium of a system in which the values of the inputs (Xt) and the outputs (Yt) are in a permanent contradictory movement, the outputs modifying the inputs, which in turn modify again the outputs" (p.67).

The theory of ergodic regulation has been developed by and W. Ross ASHBY (1956) and O. LANGE (1965).

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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