DIFFERENCE
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 914 ▶ |
| Object type | Epistemology, ontology or semantics |
A variation in perception, behavior or thought triggered by one or various bits of information.
The perception of a difference starts with the observation of some specific discontinuity between the background and the object. Any system is in this way separated from its background by the observer, as the first step to its study.
As to the way this is done, in BATESON's words:“… a single difference may be the yes-or-no answer to a question of any degree of complexity, at any level of abstraction” (1973, p.244).
In the mental sphere: “A bit of information is definable as a difference which makes a difference” (BATESON, Ibid).
Thus, differences are not necessarily new in the objects or elements themselves, nor in the in-between space: they affect relations as they are perceived.
Indeed, observers (i.e. self-referential systems, organizationally closed), in E. STEINER and L. REITER's words: “… can refer only to their own states and the difference between these states” (1989, p.232).
See also
F. HEYLIGHEN's concept of distinction.