SYSTEM (Composite)
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 3342 ▶ |
| Object type | General information, Methodology or model |
An almost homogeneous system composed of weakly interacting or non-interacting numerous elements, similar or pertaining to a reduced number of classes.
Such systems should better be named para-systems or quasi-systems, because they lack a number of properties characteristic of more integrated systems, as for example:
- they have no definite function
- they have no subsystems
- they are not autopoietic, nor autonomous
- they are generally quite homogeneous
The elements of the composite system are merely in contact, but normally not connected or only weakly connected. Furthermore, its behavior is not really integrative and it is not autonomous in the autopoietic sense, as it is not able to reproduce its elements, nor the characteristic interrelations among them.
As a result, it must suffer the impacts from its environment in a mostly passive way.
However, it may present some characteristic global states or behaviors, as for example:
- self organized criticality
- spatial self-similarity
- percolation processes
- runaway processes.
Examples of composite systems are: heaps of sand, accumulations of snow on mountains, flowing fluids, stock markets, active geological zones, small ecological systems (as, for example, mono- or oligo-cultivation orchards or fields), and possibly star clusters.
In some former papers, P. BAK and collaborators used to denominate “dynamic systems”, this class of systems which was not very satisfactory, because all classes of systems are dynamic.
In the above definition “homogeneous” means the opposite of “heterogeneous”, which is a state of highly complex and integrated systems with many specific and differently functional parts.