______________________________________________________Parent Node(s): ASC Glossary on Cybernetics
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FUNCTION
(l) Metaphor, that image which determines another
image. (Rogers) (2) An association of a certain object(s) from
one set with each object from another set (mathematics).
(Rogers) (3) The normal or characteristic action of a system of
entities, generally in time. (Iberall) (4) The variation of
some magnitude that depends upon the variation of some other
magnitude. (Iberall) (5) a notion that arises in the
description made by the observer of the components of a machine
or system in reference to an encompassing entity, which may be
the whole machine or part of it and whose states constitute the
goal that the changes in the components are to bring about.
(Maturana and Varela, 1979)