Information Science

Published 9 March 2009

Science as a System

Emilia Curras
University Professor
AHDI. Honorary Member 2003. IIS Fellow
Medalla de Oro. Foundation Prof. Kaula
SEI, Honorary Professor

Today, precisely because of the vast evolution in science with the subsequent repercussions on the activity of the human brain, which as a greater capacity of abstraction, strict compartmentalization can no longer be considered valid. Different fields of knowledge are interrelated and interdependent. For this reason it has once again become fashionable to apply the Systems Theory to any activity of the human intellect.

Perhaps science, as a discipline in itself, is the most suitable to apply to the Systems theory. We will therefore have to choose from amongst the various definitions of system the one that implies the study of the relations between a being and its surroundings. This being in not a single element but is composed of various interrelated elements which interact with their immediate environment. These units can form subsystems of differing levels so that as a whole they form a lattice, or network, of nodes with various entrances and exits, pointing in various directions. The different branches of the particular science will be the elements of the principal subsystem, where the first units that make up to lower-category subsystems, are determined by the subdivisions within the different sciences, all in mutual interaction. Thus, for example, organic chemistry, as a subdivision of chemistry, will be interrelated with and influenced by biology, history (in its evolution though the ages), ethnology, ecology, psychology and more… Ecology, on the other hand, would be interconnected with algriculture, geophyses, inorganic chemistry, parasitology and so forth… The different branches of science can successively be interwoven in to form one great system whose principal characteristics are found its open, evolutionary, complex and cyclic structure. This would not be dispersive but would have inlets and out-les.

The cyclic structure of science as a system, presupposes both reformation and transformation of its primary units which can pass from one to the other and later return to themselves. Let us consider, for example, certain historical elements that will be studied under political geography and later by historians proper… Or certain cybernetic elements that are studied in relation to the structure of the human brain to achieve “expert systems”. They are later considered as simple computer components… This entire cyclic process is carried out with the intervention and aid of information that is now considered as a form of transferable energy within the cyclic evolutionary process of science. The difference, as V.A. Vinogradov sees it lies in that it is not consumed: it grows. Or in any case, at certain moments, it remains constant. This gives science a dynamic character, allowing it to be studied within the context of systems and inventive dynamics.

It is precisely because science behaves as an open , cyclic and dynamic system, that the continual increase of information does not produce internal imbalances that could upset its behaviour. Information acts positively on its evolution. By, for example, breaking down certain units, new scientific subdivisions are created with new interrelations between these and existing subdivisions.

To study the behaviour of the different branches of science and their evolution in the future, models can be constructed, along the lines of Forrester, in which one of the flux-reflux parameters would precisely be information in its broadest sense. It could even determine the direction of its own evolution.

With this point, we conclude that science and information are inalienably related.

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