INVARIANCE (Summational)
Charles François (2004). INVARIANCE (Summational), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics, 2(1): 1773.
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 1773 ▶ |
| Object type | Discipline oriented |
The preservation of number in a population.
According to A.S. IBERALL, who introduces the notion, summational invariance marks a trend which can be verified not by dealing with individuals, but through generations.
IBERALL connects this idea with thermodynamics, which: “… is restricted to what it can describe in an ongoing viable system. It can only deal with variables which preserve fundamental properties upon interaction: so-called cyclic variables, or collisional invariants, or summational invariants” (1973, p.5).
The concept seems related to critical thresholds in composite systems.