FILTRATION

Charles François (2004). FILTRATION, International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics, 2(1): 1278.

Collection	International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics
Year	2004
Vol. (num.)	2(1)
ID	◀ 1278 ▶
Object type	General information, Methodology or model

“The selection of a subset for transmission to a receiver, from the set of messages intended for him” (R. ACKOFF & F.E. EMERY, 1972, p.191).

ACKOFF and EMERY add: “An intermediary may filter messages with the intention of better serving the receiver's purpose, as in transmitting only messages that he believes are of value to the receiver. Or the intermediary may filter for its own or another party's purposes. When it does so, it engages in censorship” (Ibid).

In fact, the concept of filtration is much more general that this. Any complex system is preconditioned to admit only useful inputs from its environment and use numerous filtration devices to protect itself.

From a different viewpoint, as observed by D. DUBOIS, any modelization implies selectively filtering out properties of the concrete system.

“Any model is constructed by reference to a particular scale of the system, without taking in account the details on the lesser levels. Only some properties of these lesser levels are considered” (1990, p.75).

See also