SYSTEM as a NETWORK (The)
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 3333 ▶ |
| Object type | General information, Methodology or model |
According to CH. DECHERT: “Natural systems such as communities or ecological systems may perhaps be reduced to the resultant of probabilistic interaction on the basis of the behavioral programs inherent in each component” (1968, p. 119).
It would seem that we need to bridge the gap between individual behavior and global one by something more than probabilistic interactions. At least, these last would have to be somehow stabilized through rules of interaction. Such rules may be intrinsic because the components characteristics allow for some interrelations and exclude others. The thus defined constraints establish the future autopoietic nature of the system (see for example von FOERSTER magnets experiment).
In the same vein, cellular automata are constructed from standard elements evolving within a characterized space, through defined rules.
DECHERT observes: “In artifactual systems, the principle of integration is either external, or insofar as such systems are self-regulating or self-organizing, internal and localized” (Ibid).
A system self-generated as a network should be first self-organizing and later on self-regulating: i.e. it constructs its own internal determinism, by progressive reciprocal emergence of self-generated constraints.