RIGIDITY

Charles François (2004). RIGIDITY, International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics, 2(2): 2882.

Collection	International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics
Year	2004
Vol. (num.)	2(2)
ID	◀ 2882 ▶
Object type	General information

State of a system whose stability may be endangered by even small changes.

While an excess of rigidity is dangerous, a minimum of it is nevertheless necessary in order to maintain the systems coherence.

Rigidity in systems increases generally with time. It is expressed by a progressive decrease of the ability to fluctuate between the limits of stability and, quite frequently, by a shrinking of these limits. One may also interpret it as a decrease of variety, in the sense given to it by ASHBY, obviously going with a lessened capacity to adapt to the variations in environments.