Open system (systems theory)

Common card · No. 215070

An open system (also known as a flow system) is a system that has external interactions. Such interactions can take the form of information, energy, or material transfers into or out of the system boundary, depending on the discipline which defines the concept. An open system is contrasted with the concept of an isolated system which exchanges neither energy, matter, nor information with its environment. A viable open system exchanges energy, matter, and/or information with its surroundings through semi-permeable, regulated, or established boundaries that preserve identity while enabling adaptive flow. The concept of an open system was formalized within a framework that enabled one to interrelate the theory of the organism, thermodynamics, and evolutionary theory. This concept was expanded upon with the advent of information theory and subsequently systems theory. Today the concept has its applications in the natural and social sciences. In the natural sciences an open system is one whose...

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