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

MACHINE (Trivial) 1)

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A machine whose behavior does not change in time.

H.von FOERSTER warns that: "The term "machine" in this context refers to well-defined functional properties of an abstract entity rather than to an assembly of cogwheels, buttons and levers, although such assemblies may represent embodiments of this abstract functional entity". He adds: "A trivial machine is characterized by a one-to-one relationship between its "input" (stimulus, cause) and its "output" (response, effect). This invariable relationship is "the machine". Since this relationship is determined once and for all, this is a deterministic system; and since an output once observed for a given input will be the same for the same input given later, this is also a predictable system" (1981, p.201).

The basic characteristics of a trivial machine are the following:

- it is fully deterministic or behavior programmed

- it has a limited number of possible states

- its behavior is completely predictable

- its behavior does not depend from the whole set of its past states

- it has no autonomy

- it cannot self-organize

Until now most human-constructed machines are trivial. von FOERSTER observes jokingly that, according to the famous Laplacian deterministic formulation, the world would be a trivial machine! (1992, p.62).

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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