Cybernetics & Human Knowing - Thesaurus pilot project
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Machine

Definition

 

Relations:

mechanicism*** 

 

Articles:

 

Definitons:

Principia Cybernetica
Encyclopedia Autopoietica

Principia Cybernetica (web)
(1) a state-determined system; any system showing behavior such that the specification of a state determines the subsequent state; a set of states closed under a mapping. (Ashby, Handout, l96l)
(2) a unity in the physical space, defined by its organization, which connotes a non-animistic outlook, and whose dynamisms are apparent. (Maturana and Varela, 1979) (ideal) A DETERMINISTIC and STATE-DETERMINED SYSTEM, a set of STATEs closed under a mapping (Ashby).
TheBEHAVIOR of an ideal machine is fully determined by knowing its TRANSFORMATION and its initial state. (Krippendorff)

 

Encyclopedia Autopoietica
"A unity in the physical space, defined by its organization, which connotes a non-animistic outlook; and whose dynamisms is apparent." (Maturana & Varela, 1980, p. 136)

In the literature, the term "machine" is sometimes used as a synonym for "system" (as that term is colloquially used). However, in Maturana and Varela (1980), the term "system" is reserved as a general label for any discernible composite of components (cf. system). The reliance on the notion of "machine" in the early writings is a direct result of Maturana and Varela's stance of mechanicism.

 

International Encyclopedia of Systems & Cybernetics
no def.