REGENERATION
Charles François (2004). REGENERATION, International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics, 2(2): 2795.
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 2795 ▶ |
| Object type | General information |
The condition of a complex system which recycles or reproduces its different elements through an array of interconnected and interacting closed loops.
M. EIGEN and P. SCHUSTER explained this process by developing their hypercycle concept (1979).
While regeneration is never perfect, this periodic recycling process insures the dynamic stability of the system, as long as a certain critical level of copying errors is not exceeded.
Ageing and senescence seem to be related to the crossing of such a threshold by progressive accumulation through time.
While the regeneration mechanism is internal, it is still dependent, as observed by H.T. ODUM, on “… a regenerative complementary ecosystem” (1971, p.287) (or suprasystem).