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

PATHOLOGY of complex systems 1)2)4)

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The study of global disfunctions in systems, as well as of disturbances in the interconnections between subsystems.

The traditional reductionist attitude leads to a dismembered view of systemic symptoms. However, illness is not always so much as of an organ, or an individual, or a group, but as of their interrelations with other organs or individuals or groups, at the same or at different levels. Thus systemic pathology should study communications problems, at their physiological, technical and/or informational levels; regulators and controls malfunctions; global governance problems; etc…

H. SELYE research on stress was a partial, but important step in this direction. In such way a general pathology of complex systems could be constructed. (Ch. FRANÇOIS, 1984). Important applications in management, economy and social sciences would then be conceivable.

Among the most important systemic pathologies we can list the following:

- Progressive disorganization of internal communication lines in the system, leading to loss of coherence and capacity of reaction due to insufficient or delayed information;

- Internal overcrowding or overstocking of the system, leading to exhaustion of vital resources and progressive destruction of the system;

- Asphyxia of the system due to the sudden or progressive curtailment of needed energy, matter and/or information inputs, caused either by changes within the environment or internal malfunction.

- Overtaxing of environmental resources or capacity to absorb outputs (either useful or wasteful);

- Confusion in coding and decoding, leading to progressive loss of the capacity for meaningful interactions among the subsystems or members of the system;

- Loss of adaptive capacity, characteristic of ageing processes;

- Unbalance or downright incompatibility between simultaneous or sequential goals (for example between local and global, or short and long term ones);

- Misunderstanding of natural regulations or use of ill-conceived controls.

Many more aspects of systemic pathology could probably be discovered and usefully researched.

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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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