"Each system has a specific structure made up of certain maintained relationships among its parts, and manifests irreducible characteristics of its own." (Ervin László, "Introduction to Systems Philosophy", 1972)
"General systems theory is the scientific exploration of 'wholes' and 'wholeness' which, not so long ago, were considered metaphysical notions transcending the boundaries of science. Hierarchic structure, stability, teleology, differentiation, approach to and maintenance of steady states, goal-directedness - these are a few of such general system properties." (Ervin László, "Introduction to Systems Philosophy", 1972)
"Opposed to atomism and behaviorism, the systems view of man links him again with the world he lives in, for he is seen as emerging in that world and reflecting its general character." (Ervin László, "Introduction to Systems Philosophy", 1972)
"Systems at each level of integration function as wholes with respect to their parts and parts with respect to higher level wholes." (Ervin László, "Introduction to Systems Philosophy", 1972)
"The systems view is the emerging contemporary view of organized complexity, one step beyond the Newtonian view of organized simplicity, and two steps beyond the classical world views of divinely ordered or imaginatively envisaged complexity." (Ervin László, "Introduction to Systems Philosophy", 1972)
"There is nothing supernatural about the process of self-organization to states of higher entropy; it is a general property of systems, regardless of their materials and origin. It does not violate the Second Law of thermodynamics since the decrease in entropy within an open system is always offset by the increase of entropy in its surroundings." (Ervin László, "Introduction to Systems Philosophy", 1972)
"In sum, the processes of evolution create initially comparatively simple dynamical systems on particular levels of organisation. The processes then lead to the progressive complexification of the existing systems and, ultimately, to the creation of simpler systems on the next higher organisational level, where complexification begins anew. Thus evolution moves from the simpler to the more complex, and from the lower to the higher level of organisation. Ervin László, 1991)
"The new information technologies can be seen to drive societies toward increasingly dynamic high-energy regions further and further from thermodynamical equilibrium, characterized by decreasing specific entropy and increasingly dense free-energy flows, accessed and processed by more and more complex social, economic, and political structures." (Ervin László, "Information Technology and Social Change: An Evolutionary Systems Analysis", Behavioral Science 37, 1992)
"General evolution theory, based on the integration of the relevant tenets of general system theory, cybernetics, information and communication theory, chaos theory, dynamical systems theory, and nonequilibrium thermodynamics, can convey a sound understanding of the laws and dynamics that govern the evolution of complex systems in the various realms of investigation [...]. The basic notions of this new discipline can be developed to give an adequate account of the dynamical evolution of human societies as well. Such an account could furnish the basis of a system of knowledge better able to orient human beings and societies in their rapidly changing milieu." (Ervin László et al, "The Evolution of Cognitive Maps: New Paradigms for the Twenty-first Century", 1993)
"The description of the evolutionary trajectory of dynamical systems as irreversible, periodically chaotic, and strongly nonlinear fits certain features of the historical development of human societies. But the description of evolutionary processes, whether in nature or in history, has additional elements. These elements include such factors as the convergence of existing systems on progressively higher organizational levels, the increasingly efficient exploitation by systems of the sources of free energy in their environment, and the complexification of systems structure in states progressively further removed from thermodynamic equilibrium." (Ervin László et al, "The Evolution of Cognitive Maps: New Paradigms for the Twenty-first Century", 1993)
"Because complex systems in the real world are nearly always 'far from equilibrium' (which in this context does not mean weakness and imbalance, but a dynamic state where internal forces keep a system from lapsing into randomness), changes can frequently occur that upset the rapport between the internal forces structuring the systems and the external forces that make up their environment. When that happens, sudden and nonlinear 'chaotic' processes take place that either restructure the system and propel it along a trajectory that becomes more and more complex, either leading ultimately to the evolution of life - and perhaps also of mind and consciousness - or else to a fatal perturbation of the system and its disintegration. In the science of nonequilibrium thermodynamics the evolution of complex systems is always irreversible because the only alternatives available to the system are those of increasing complexity, or else total extinction. Thus, systems described in the new science of nonequilibrium thermodynamics display a definite direction of temporal development, a 'Time’s Arrow' contrary to the orientation toward randomness and disorder known to classical thermodynamics." (Ervin László, "Vision 2020: Reordering Chaos for Global Survival", 1994)
"Bifurcation is just such a term, lying at the core of a science that offers a means of understanding systems and phenomena previously beyond the grasp of any science. In fact, of all the terms drawn from chaos theory and the general theory of systems, bifurcation may turn out to be the most important. First because it aptly describes the single most important kind of experience shared by nearly all people in today’s world, and second because it accurately describes the single most decisive event shaping the future of contemporary societies." (Ervin László, "Vision 2020: Reordering Chaos for Global Survival", 1994)
"In the realms of nature it is impossible to predict which way a bifurcation will cut. The outcome of a bifurcation is determined neither by the past history of a system nor by its environment, but only by the interplay of more or less random fluctuations in the chaos of critical destabilization. One or another of the fluctuations that rock such a system will suddenly 'nucleate'. The nucleating fluctuation will amplify with great rapidity and spread to the rest of the system. In a surprisingly short time, it dominates the system’s dynamics. The new order that is then born from the womb of chaos reflects the structural and functional characteristics of the nucleated fluctuation. [...] Bifurcations are more visible, more frequent, and more dramatic when the systems that exhibit them are close to their thresholds of stability - when they are all but choked out of existence." (Ervin László, "Vision 2020: Reordering Chaos for Global Survival", 1994)
"Just what is bifurcation? Like chaos, this is a word that means something other than it used to. Chaos used to mean disorder and confusion. Now it means subtle, complex, ultrasensitive kinds of order. Bifurcation in turn used to mean splitting into two forks (from the Latin bi, meaning two, and furca, meaning fork). But today bifurcation means something more specific than that: in contemporary scientific usage this term signifies a fundamental characteristic in the behavior of complex systems when exposed to high constraint and stress. It is important to know about this meaning because we ourselves, no less than the societies and environments in which we live, are complex systems exposed to constraints and stress. In fact, in many contemporary societies levels of stress are now reaching critical dimensions." (Ervin László, "Vision 2020: Reordering Chaos for Global Survival", 1994)
"Progressively higher levels of organization are attained as catalytic cycles on one level interlock and form hypercycles: these are systems on a higher level of organization. Thus molecules emerge from a combination of chemically active atoms; protocells emerge from sequences of complex molecules; eukaryotic cells emerge among the prokaryotes; metazoa make their appearance among the protozoa and converge in still higher-level ecological and social systems." (Ervin László, "Vision 2020: Reordering Chaos for Global Survival", 1994)
"Society, too, enters a chaotic state from time to time. This is not a state of anarchy but of ultrasensitivity - the prelude to change. In a chaotic condition, society is sensitive to every small fluctuation, to every new idea, new movement, new way of thinking and acting." (Ervin László, "Vision 2020: Reordering Chaos for Global Survival", 1994)
"When a system is 'stressed' beyond certain threshold limits as, for example, when it is heated up, or its pressure is increased, it shifts from one set of attractors to another and then behaves differently. To use the language of the theory, the system 'settles into a new dynamic regime'. It is at the point of transition that a bifurcation takes place. The system no longer follows the trajectory of its initial attractors, but responds to new attractors that make the system appear to be behaving randomly. It is not behaving randomly, however, and this is the big shift in our understanding caused by dynamical systems theory. It is merely responding to a new set of attractors that give it a more complex trajectory. The term bifurcation, in its most significant sense, refers to the transition of a system from the dynamic regime of one set of attractors, generally more stable and simpler ones, to the dynamic regime of a set of more complex and 'chaotic' attractors." (Ervin László, "Vision 2020: Reordering Chaos for Global Survival", 1994)
"Whenever patterns are perceived in a process, there is the possibility of extrapolation. Whatever the nature of the pattern, it provides a handle for grasping something about the way it will unfold in the future." (Ervin László, "Vision 2020: Reordering Chaos for Global Survival", 1994)
"A new level of organization means a simplification of system function, and of the corresponding system structure, it also means the initiation of a process of progressive structural and functional complexification. (Ervin László," Evolution: The general theory", 1996)
"Systemicity is imposed as a set of rules binding the parts among themselves. But these rules do not constrain the parts to act in one way and one way only; they merely prescribe that certain types of functions are carried out in certain sequences. The parts have options; as long as a sufficient number of sufficiently qualified units carry out the prescribed tasks, the requirements of systemic determination are met." (Ervin László, "The Systems View of the World", 1996)
"The worldview of the classical sciences conceptualized nature as a giant machine composed of intricate but replaceable machine-like parts. The new systems sciences look at nature as an organism endowed with irreplaceable elements and an innate but non-deterministic purpose for choice, for flow, for spontaneity." (Ervin László, "The Systems View of the World", 1996)
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