SELF-DESTRUCTION OF SYSTEMS
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 2969 ▶ |
| Object type | Human sciences, Methodology or model |
No system seems able to survive eternally, save possibly the cosmos as a whole . But even this is merely an hypothesis that cannot be proved or disproved.
Systems can be destroyed by some independent perturbation in their environment , which eventually overwhelms the limits of their conditions of existence.
However self-destruction is very frequent. It can happen in different ways:
- The system may be taxing its environment excessively. A tragic example has been given by J. DIAMOND describing the undoing of Easter Island people (1995), possibly the most perfect example of Malthusian self-destruction by a population overtaxing a closed environment . DIAMOND wonders if this lesson would not apply to humanity as a whole in relation to planet Earth.
- Some subsystem of the system may turn parasitic and consume so much resources as to starve the system as a whole , making it unable to maintain itself.
- Some internal or external parasite may invade the system and also divert excessive resources for its own benefit. Cancerous growth would be a biological example.
- All systems seem to have a characteristic inbuilt mechanism which limits their survival in time : ageing in biological systems (for ex. apoptosis incells);sclerosis in human social systems .