EXPLOSIVE PROCESS
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 1228 ▶ |
| Object type | General information, Methodology or model |
A self-destructive process resulting from a constantly recurrent positive feedback.
Any process must be fed by some kind of inputs, whether material, energetic or informative, obtained from an environmental source. As positive feedbacks produce a major need of inputs, the accumulative acceleration of their use tends to an also accelerated exploitation of the source, leading to over-exploitation or overburdening. This in turn leads the process to a runaway event that leaves it (and the system it belongs to) more or less quickly without the needed inputs (or outputs outlets, or sinks) and ends up in its destruction.
The same phenomenon may also lead to internal overload, or in populations, to overcrowding. Paradoxically, such overload is conducive to a kind of de-synchronization and lysis of the normal interactions network and to the uncoordinated dispersal of the members of the population. (B. WALLISER, 1977, p.84).