______________________________________________________Parent Node(s): ASC Glossary on Cybernetics
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BIFURCATION
a bifurcation is the appearance of an additional
pattern of behavior or sequence of states for a system.
Generally we have successive bifurcations where we increase the
value of some characteristic parameter. One can think of a
per-son traveling down a road. The farther the traveler goes,
the more side streets or alternative routes appear. In a sense
the bifurcation introduces history. To know the state of a
system at any time implies a knowledge of the paths taken or not
taken. (Umpleby after Prigogine, 1980, pp. 105-6)