SYSTEM (Richly or poorly joined)
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 3398 ▶ |
| Object type | Methodology or model |
W.R. ASHBY states that a system may have more or less strong or weak internal interactions among its parts or subsystems (1960, chap.11).
A totally joined system would become at the same time clogged and blocked; if any element can communicate freely with any other at any time and in any way, no order can be defined. Curiously, the result is the same as in a collection of disordered elements (the case of the totally entropized isolated system — a semantic contradiction, since such a system does not possess anymore any feature).
Thus, a system can be functionally defined only if it is limitedly intra-connected, i.e. if its variety is limited by constraints, i.e., if some interrelations are not permitted.
Furthermore there seems to exist an optimum such as the system reaches at one moment the best adapted level of internal connection in relation to its functionality, while at the same time, maintaining the best possible adaptativeness. Such an optimum must however necessarily be transitional.
One could also speak of strongly or weakly intraconnected system to make more understandable the somewhat at times esoteric language of ASHBY.