SIMPLIFICATION
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 3047 ▶ |
| Object type | General information |
As a set of methodologies to study “organized complexity” (W. WEAVER, 1953), systemics and cybernetics have introduced new modes of simplification.
Some interesting examples, among others, are:
- J.G. MILLER's general principles of organization of living systems
- H. SIMON's hierarchies of subsystems and modes of decomposability of complex systems
- G. KLIR's Reconstructability Analysis
- J. WARFIELD's Interpretive Structural Modeling
- H. HAKEN's Synergetics
- H. SABELLI's general Process Theory
- D. Mc NEIL's general Toroid model
In general these methods aim at identifying coherent complex units within more global wholes. As jokingly stated by J.L.LE MOIGNE, a system should not be sliced as a sausage.
G. KLIR defines a “basic simplification principle”: “A sound simplification of a system should minimize the loss of relevant information with respect to the required reduction of its complexity”. He adds: “Among all comparable simplifications of the given system, we accept only those with minimumm uncertainty” (1991, p.401).
Even such complex transformations as the ergodic or chaotic ones, are made more intelligible by models whose systemic character is evermore widely recognized.