INDETERMINACY (Macroscopic)

Charles François (2004). INDETERMINACY (Macroscopic), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics, 2(1): 1632.

Collection	International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics
Year	2004
Vol. (num.)	2(1)
ID	◀ 1632 ▶
Object type	General information, Methodology or model

According to I. PRIGOGINE et al., a consequence of the thermodynamics of irreversible systems far-from-equilibrium is that: “… the macroscopic equations themselves contain the element of stochasticity which leads to ”macroscopic indeterminacy“. Problems such as self-organization in nonequilibrium systems require both aspects — the deterministic one where averages represent accurately the physical state of the system, and the stochastic one which is important near bifurcation points and instabilities. It is the cooperation of these two features which leads to a faithful representation of some of the basic aspects of evolving systems” (1978,p.72).