The book International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics is an authoritative encyclopedia [1] for systems theory, cybernetics, the complex systems science, which covers both theories and applications in areas as engineering, biology, medicine and social sciences. This book first published in 1997 aimed to give an overview over more than 40 years developments in the field of Systems and Cybernetics. [2]
This book offers a collection of more than 3000 keywords and articles of Systems and Cybernetics. Many items contain quotes from authors from the field.
The book is edited by Belgian systems scientist and diplomat Charles François [3] with an Academic board including members such as John N. Warfield, Robert Trappl, Ranulph Glanville, G. A. Swanson, [4] Nicholas Paritsis, [5] Daniel Dubois, [6] Heiner Benking, [7] Francisco Parra Luna, [8] Anthony Judge,Markus Schwaninger, [9] Gerhard Chroust, G. A. Swanson, Matjaž Mulej [10] and Stuart Umpleby.
The first edition was published in 1997 in one volume with 450 pages by publisher K.G. Saur in Munich. The second edition was published in 2004, in two volumes and 741 pages by the same publisher. This update consisted of 1700 articles, some of them with figures, tables and diagrams, and 1500 bibliographical references. [11] The genesis of the Encyclopedia was published by Anthony Judge in the Wall Street Journal and as Festschrift in 2001: UIA - Saur Relations: Sharing a Documentary Pilgrimage. [12]
Systems theory is the transdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or artificial. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, defined by its structure, function and role, and expressed through its relations with other systems. A system is "more than the sum of its parts" when it expresses synergy or emergent behavior.
Norbert Wiener was an American computer scientist, mathematician and philosopher. He became a professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A child prodigy, Wiener later became an early researcher in stochastic and mathematical noise processes, contributing work relevant to electronic engineering, electronic communication, and control systems.
Systems thinking is a way of making sense of the complexity of the world by looking at it in terms of wholes and relationships rather than by splitting it down into its parts. It has been used as a way of exploring and developing effective action in complex contexts, enabling systems change. Systems thinking draws on and contributes to systems theory and the system sciences.
William Ross Ashby was an English psychiatrist and a pioneer in cybernetics, the study of the science of communications and automatic control systems in both machines and living things. His first name was not used: he was known as Ross Ashby.
Systems science, also referred to as systems research, or, simply, systems, is a transdisciplinary field that is concerned with understanding simple and complex systems in nature and society, which leads to the advancements of formal, natural, social, and applied attributions throughout engineering, technology and science, itself.
The Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential (EWPHP) is a research work published by the Union of International Associations (UIA). It is available online since 2000, and was previously available as a CD-ROM and as a three-volume book.
Second-order cybernetics, also known as the cybernetics of cybernetics, is the recursive application of cybernetics to itself and the reflexive practice of cybernetics according to such a critique. It is cybernetics where "the role of the observer is appreciated and acknowledged rather than disguised, as had become traditional in western science". Second-order cybernetics was developed between the late 1960s and mid 1970s by Heinz von Foerster and others, with key inspiration coming from Margaret Mead. Foerster referred to it as "the control of control and the communication of communication" and differentiated first-order cybernetics as "the cybernetics of observed systems" and second-order cybernetics as "the cybernetics of observing systems".
Clinamen is the Latin name Lucretius gave to the unpredictable swerve of atoms, in order to defend the atomistic doctrine of Epicurus. In modern English it has come more generally to mean an inclination or a bias.
Andrew Gordon Speedie Pask was a British cybernetician, inventor and polymath who made multiple contributions to cybernetics, educational psychology, educational technology, applied episteomology, chemical computing, architecture, and systems art. During his life, he gained three doctorate degrees. He was an avid writer, with more than two hundred and fifty publications which included a variety of journal articles, books, periodicals, patents, and technical reports. He worked as an academic and researcher for a variety of educational settings, research institutes, and private stakeholders including but not limited to the University of Illinois, Concordia University, the Open University, Brunel University and the Architectural Association School of Architecture. He is known for the development of conversation theory.
Anthony George Wilden was a writer, social theorist, college lecturer, and consultant. Wilden published numerous books and articles which intersect a number of fields, including systems theory, film theory, structuralism, cybernetics, psychiatry, anthropological theory, water control projects, urban ecosystems, resource conservation, and communications and social relations.
Ranulph Glanville was an Anglo-Irish cybernetician and design theorist. He was a founding vice-president of the International Academy for Systems and Cybernetic Sciences (2006–2009) and president of the American Society for Cybernetics (2009–2014).
Charles François was a Belgian administrator, editor and scientist in the fields of cybernetics, systems theory and systems science, internationally known for his main work the International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics.
Social entropy is a sociological theory that evaluates social behaviours using a method based on the second law of thermodynamics. The equivalent of entropy in a social system is considered to be wealth or residence location. The term "social entropy" was first used by physicist Peter Tait in 1874. The theory was introduced by Kenneth D. Bailey in 1990 and extended recently by Roumen Tsekov, who related social entropy to liberty and economic freedom.
Management cybernetics is concerned with the application of cybernetics to management and organizations. "Management cybernetics" was first introduced by Stafford Beer in the late 1950s and introduces the various mechanisms of self-regulation applied by and to organizational settings, as seen through a cybernetics perspective. Beer developed the theory through a combination of practical applications and a series of influential books. The practical applications involved steel production, publishing and operations research in a large variety of different industries. Some consider that the full flowering of management cybernetics is represented in Beer's books. However, learning continues.
Gale Alden (G.A.) Swanson was an American organizational theorist, and Professor of Accounting at Tennessee Technological University, known for his accounting theories based on James Grier Miller’s general living systems theory.
Anthony Judge, is mainly known for his career at the Union of International Associations (UIA), where he has been Director of Communications and Research, as well as Assistant Secretary-General. He was responsible at the UIA for the development of interlinked databases and for publications based on those databases, mainly the Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential, the Yearbook of International Organizations, and the International Congress Calendar. Judge has also personally authored a collection of over 1,600 documents of relevance to governance and strategy-making. All these papers are freely available on his personal website Laetus in Praesens. Now retired from the UIA, he is continuing his research within the context of an initiative called Union of Imaginable Associations.
Cybernetics is the transdisciplinary study of circular processes such as feedback systems where outputs are also inputs. It is concerned with general principles that are relevant across multiple contexts, including in ecological, technological, biological, cognitive and social systems and also in practical activities such as designing, learning, and managing.
Alexander Laszlo (*1964) is a polycultural systems scientist, currently residing in Argentina.
Markus Schwaninger is an Austrian economist and Professor of Management at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and Director of the International World Organization of Systems and Cybernetics. He is known for his co-authorship of the St. Galler Management-Model.