GREY BOX
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 1468 ▶ |
| Object type | Methodology or model |
A kind of black box which is known to contain some internal intervening variables acting as links between inputs and outputs.
In a grey box, at least something is known about the inner tranformation mechanisms of the box.
According to M. BUNGE, automata are grey boxes, which may be deterministic if the same types of inputs produce the same outputs, or probabilistic if they produce only probable outputs. (1979, p.263).
Such models “are of greater interest than black box models because, unlike the latter, they take into account not only the behavior but also the internal states of a system” (Ibid). Complex systems are similar to grey boxes, in that we know something of their internal mechanisms, but not enough to make them perfectly, or even reasonably predictable.