Interconnectivity is a concept that is used in numerous fields such as cybernetics Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to control theory and systems theory. Both in its origins and in its evolution in the second-half of the 20th century, cybernetics is equally applicable to physical and social systems, biology Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy, ecology Ecology is the scientific study of the distributions, abundance and relations of organisms and their interactions with the environment. Ecology includes the study of plant and animal populations, plant and animal communities and ecosystems. Ecosystems describe the web or network of relations among organisms at different scales of organization, network theory Network theory is an area of computer science and network science and part of graph theory. It has application in many disciplines including particle physics, computer science, biology, economics, operations research, and sociology. Network theory concerns itself with the study of graphs as a representation of either symmetric relations or, more, and non-linear dynamics. The concept can be summarized as that all parts of a system interact with Interaction is a kind of action that occurs as two or more objects have an effect upon one another. The idea of a two-way effect is essential in the concept of interaction, as opposed to a one-way causal effect. A closely related term is interconnectivity, which deals with the interactions of interactions within systems: combinations of many and rely on one another simply by the fact that they occupy the same system, and that a system is difficult or sometimes impossible to analyze through its individual parts considered alone. The concept is closely linked to the Observer effect and the butterfly effect The butterfly effect is a metaphor that encapsulates the concept of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory; namely that small differences in the initial condition of a dynamical system may produce large variations in the long term behavior of the system. Although this may appear to be an esoteric and unusual behavior, it is.[1] It is often linked to the concepts of interconnectedness which is used to refer to the spiritual, and interdependence Interdependence is a dynamic of being mutually and physically responsible to, and sharing a common set of principles with others. This concept differs distinctly from "dependence" in that an interdependent relationship implies that all participants are emotionally, economically, ecologically and or morally "interdependent." which refers to the moral, rather than physical or scientific.
Examples
- A gear alone is useless, and tells little about the machine it came from. A cabinet full of gears, however, can run a clock, and the way these parts are assembled is the clock. The clock is the interconnection of its gears. Remove or damage one gear, and the entire clock is damaged.
- It also refers to the topology of a network and describes in detail its characteristics as well as links in the network.
- Another example is an ecosystem. All inhabitants of an ecosystem play a part in maintaining that ecosystem, and a fragile equilibrium is formed.[citation needed] Any event that affects one part of the ecosystem affects the entire ecosystem. An event that removes a seemingly unimportant species can alter an ecosystem. If a fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition burns all of the grass from a field, the predators will starve or leave, because the herbivores will starve or leave in the absence of grass Grasses, or more technically graminoids, are monocotyledonous, usually herbaceous plants with narrow leaves growing from the base. They include the "true grasses", of the Poaceae family, as well as the sedges (Cyperaceae) and the rushes (Juncaceae). The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns (turf) and grassland.
- The occasional inter-state blackouts in the Northeastern United States over the past few decades are an example of interconnectivity gone wrong. A single line or transformer failure caused the entire system to fail in almost every case. Because the surrounding lines were unable to assume the additional load, the entire system failed.
Differentiation from the butterfly effect
The key difference between interconnectivity and the butterfly effect is that while the butterfly effect deals with chain reactions and events, interconnectivity deals with systems in dynamic equilibrium, such as ecosystems, economies, societies, etc. While the two are often substituted incorrectly for one another, they are two similar but separate concepts.
References
- ^ Kelly, Kevin (1994). Out of control: the new biology of machines, social systems and the economic world. Boston: Addison-Wesley. ISBN The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code created by Gordon Foster, now Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin, for the booksellers and stationers W.H. Smith and others in 1966 0-201-48340-8.
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