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.

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MATRIX 2)

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"A table of columns and rows employed for organizing a set of interrelated values."

A matrix is basically a combinatory device. It can be used, for instance, to discover all the possible interconnections between various characteristics; or indicate all the possible transitions from one state or phase to others, indicating its various probabilities. It may also be constructed and operated as an encoding decoding device.

J. WARFIELD and N.M. AYIKU proposed the use of a number of interconnected binary matrixes to understand complex flows of any kinds within a system. They emphasize the following types of matrixes:

Input matrix: to be used to define what inputs are required by each actor

Output matrix: to be used to find out what outputs are produced by each actor

Actor interaction matrix: to respond to the structural question: what actors supply inputs to what other actors

Input-Output matrix: responding to the structural question: What inputs are required to produce what outputs.

It may be useful to convert these matrixes into graphs, which may lead to an "interpretive structural model" (J. N. WARFIELD & N.M.B. AYIKU, 1989, p.29-35).

→ J. WARFIELD for a very complete survey of the subject of matrixes use in systemics (p.220-63).

Matrixes are generally two-dimensional, but may have more dimensions. This however makes their practical use much more difficult.

→ Markovian matrix

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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