COUPLING (Excessive)

Charles François (2004). COUPLING (Excessive), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics, 2(1): 740.

Collection	International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics
Year	2004
Vol. (num.)	2(1)
ID	◀ 740 ▶
Object type	General information, Methodology or model

Saturation of all the possible connections in a system.

This notion is stated by J. MELESE (1972).

A completely connected system is by necessity, totally rigid. It becomes unable to react to any disturbance of a new type: it cannot anymore learn or adapt.

J.L. LEMOIGNE shows that, to remain adaptable, the system should not be totally adapted. He quotes MELESE, who wrote: “Adaptation requires stability… or more precisely the presence of enough zones of stability, to allow for the search of local adjustments” (1977, p.158).

MELESE's zones of stability seem to be equivalent to KAUFFMAN's frozen cores.

Adaptability supposes experimentation, which implies the necessity to possess a (considerable) variety of potential connections.

See also