STABILITY CONDITIONS
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 3165 ▶ |
| Object type | General information |
Stability being a basic need for complex dynamical systems, a good understanding of stability conditions is very important.
Systems may resist destabilization in different ways:
1. By the use of internal devices as for example:
- regulators and controls which adapt the system to the environmental variations (in a more or less statistical way)
- redundancy, which may allow one component or subsystem to replace another one, not able to function correctly
- variety, which offers to the system the possibility to select a specific response within a number of possible ones.
2. By some pre-adaptation to a definite environment specially favourable:
- By avoiding excessive specialization in order to be able to adapt itself to different types of environments
- By acquiring the capacity to modify the environment in a way better suited to its needs.
All these conditions aim at the maintenance of the identity and permanence of the system. In the case of giant fluctuations and dissipative structuration, stability is irretrievably lost, but may be recovered for the benefit of the newly structured system which will possibly replace the former one.