Re: Qualitative Understanding Of Complex Systems

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Matthew,

My mind goes back to Ashby's 'Introduction to Cybernetics' as one of the
first places where I saw someone thinking about complex control systems
in a very generic, logical, or qualitative way, at least at the outset
of the book, before it became necessary to introduce all of the usual
linear assumptions in order to get some differential equations going,
way back in the days before they had chaos, or rather, before they
knew they did, which I guess is what made things even more chaotic,
if you catch my drift.  At any rate, the text is available online
from the good folks at Principia Cybernetica, and this will allow
me to get by with putting up the most minimal of excerpts on the
Ontology List.

| Ashby, W. Ross,
|'An Introduction to Cybernetics',
| Chapman and Hall, London, UK, 1956
|
| http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ASHBBOOK.html

Jon Awbrey

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