Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Requisite Variety And The Second Law, Martin Zwick
Requisite Variety And The Second Law, Martin Zwick
Systems Science Faculty Publications and Presentations
Although the Law of Requisite Variety (LRV) speaks directly about entropy (of a set of disturbances to a system, and of the states and effects of a regulator), the relation of Ashby's principle to the Second Law of Thermodynamics does not appear to have been commented on, In this paper, it is shown that, when regulation is viewed as a temporal process, the LRV can be interpreted as a statement of, and, in fact, a consequence of, the Second Law. In essence, the regulator reduces the variety (entropy) of the system being regulated by a compensatory increase of variety (entropy) …