CONSTANCY
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 638 ▶ |
| Object type | Methodology or model |
The unchanging level of some variable or character of some subsystem for a time.
ASHBY explains: “If some of the variables or subsystems are constant for a time, than during that time the connections through them are reduced functionally to zero, and the effect is as if the connexions had been severed in some material way during that time… Thus a whole, connected system may, if a sufficient proportion of its variables go constant, be temporarily equivalent to a set of unconnected subsystems. Constancies, in other words, can cut a system to pieces” (1960, p.169).
This is one of these original, stimulating… and somewhat paradoxical ideas of ASHBY. Of course, a dosis of constancy, let us say for example of structural constancy in our skeleton, is obviously helpful. But arthrosis would not be.