WAVE
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 3760 ▶ |
| Object type | General information, Methodology or model |
A periodic oscillation.
There are many classes of waves. A. BOGDANOV considers waves as “… the most widespread method in nature of preserving or restoring equilibria”. Moreover “This is a kind of general model for innumerable processes of the inorganic universe… But this model is also applicable without limit to the realm of life: almost all of the life processes are of the periodic oscillation type” (1980, p.9).
However, even in this sense, waves seem to ride on more generic long term trends. E. JANTSCH, for instance, writes about “waves of organization (which) may be understood as another manifestation, at a macrolevel, of the basic evolutionary mechanism of ”order through fluctuations“, of a rhythm alternating between stabilization and mutation, as it has been described for nonequilibrium physical systems”. (1975, p.253).
N. ELDREDGE and S. GOULD's model of punctuated (i.e. by periodic waves) evolution looks like another example of waves riding a more fundamental trend (1972, p.82-115).