Life symptoms: The behaviour of open systems with limited energy dissipation capacity and evolution
- Poznan Univ. of Technology (Poland)
For income distributions, city-size distributions and word frequencies we observe skewed or long-tailed distributions of the PARETO-ZIPF type. In general - for properties of units belonging to the same astrophysical, biological, ecological, urban, social, political, economic or mechanical machinery system - we observe similar regularities referred to as Pareto law, Zipf`s law or rank-size law. We give a short historical overview over the discovery of these empirical regularities. Then we review a variety of theoretical tentatives, none of which can {open_quotes}explain{close_quotes} that similar regularities are observed in such an incredible wide range of scientific research areas. Finally, departing from a very specific model-describing gribo-vibro-acoustic processes in machines- propose a generalized theoretical framework in terms of energy transformation with limited internal energy dissipation capacity, which is applicable to all fields. The proposed model {open_quotes}unifies{close_quotes} a large variety of concepts and applies a coherent terminology to fields, which have at first sight nothing in common. For the observed life symptoms, theoretical predictions can be compared with past and future empirical observations. What is most important is the model`s inference power: from the observations of a set of units at a given moment of life-time (a snapshot of the system), one can predict the average behaviour of a single unit over its entire life-time. 23 refs.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- OSTI ID:
- 457707
- Journal Information:
- Systems Research, Vol. 9, Issue 4; Other Information: PBD: 1992
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
The Zipf Law revisited: An evolutionary model of emerging classification
Photoelastic investigations of stress concentration in perforated cylindrical shells with internal pressure