FAR-FROM-EQUILIBRIUM CONDITION
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 1248 ▶ |
| Object type | Discipline oriented, Methodology or model |
The condition of a system undergoing widening fluctuations that leads it close to an instability threshold.
I. PRIGOGINE describes it as follows: “Here the fluctuations may be amplified and change the macroscopic pattern of the system. The state of the system extrapolated from the equilibrium state becomes unstable and, through fluctuations, is driven into a new state. Instability means that under these conditions existing structure cannot be maintained: the system has now become open to… a multiplicity of new possibilities and the phenomenological equations… cannot predict which of the new possibilities will be realized. Evolution of the nonequilibrium structure depends on some singular factor that happens to occur at the right time, at the right place: it depends on chance” (1984, p.48).