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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VARIETY (Limits to) 2)3)

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"The limits to the number of possible states of a system (1998 c, p. 56) (variety used in the sense of s-variety I identified in my earlier piece, that is, the number of states possible within a system)" (R. GLANVILLE, 1998 a)

The most general limit to variety is BREMERMANN'S limit, based on this author concept of the whole matter content of the universe (hypothetized as closed, of course) "as a perfect and ideal atomic computer".

Starting from such a view "the world has vastly more variety that anyone of us can dream of having" (1998 c, p. 62)

GLANVILLE concludes: "This means that we are left with two options. To try to control the world by reducing its variety (leading to a very restricted and normative life), or to go with it, accepting that it is beyond our control and enjoying the novelty it offers us through its variety"(Ibid)

These options appear in any practical situation or issue: we would ideally need to strike a convenient balance between control and openness to creativity.

In fact, excessive control may lead to sterility and paralysis, while insufficiently controlled creativity veers easily onto anarchy and disintegration.

→ Bottom up; Organization; Top down

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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