REGIME
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 2798 ▶ |
| Object type | General information |
A type of more or less regular behavior characteristic of a system.
St. KAUFFMAN distinguishes three basic types of regimes: ordered, complex, or chaotic. He states: “In the ordered regime, many elements freeze in fixed states of activity. These frozen elements form a large connected cluster, or frozen component, which spans, or percolates, across the system and leaves behind isoolated islands of unfrozen elements whose activities fluctuate in complex ways. In the chaotic regime, there is no frozen component… In this chaotic regime, small changes in initial conditions unleash avalanches of changes which propagate to many other unfrozen elements. These avalanches demonstrate that, in the chaotic regime, the dynamics are very sensitive to initial conditions. The transition from the ordered regime to the chaotic regime constitutes a phase transition, which occurs as a variety of parameters are changed” (1993, p.174).