On 8/11/2017 5:09 PM, Helmut Raulien wrote:
A system, I think, is defined by the part of its structure, that does not change. The system exists as long as this part of structure (set of relations) exists. Which part of the structure is used to define the system, can be arbitrary choice, but usually is something essential, whatever this means.
You could apply Peirce's classification of signs to this analysis. As an example, consider the book _War and Peace_. Peirce would call the physical book a sign token. The corresponding type would be the entire text, considered as a string of chapters, paragraphs, sentences, words -- independent of any method of presentation or storage. That type is an abstraction from the physical book. But there is an even more general abstraction: the detailed plot of the book, which is the same type for Tolstoy's original Russian and the translation to English or any other language. A very similar, but somewhat simplified plot type could be used to classify a movie made from the book. The plot type for the movie and the plot type for the book would both be special cases of a more general plot type.
Every system has a "Now". This is the signs, that happen every now, and this "now" travels through time.
You could apply that description to the movie as it is projected on a screen (in a theater or on a computer). But you could also apply it to the process of a person sitting in a chair and reading the book -- in any language. That process may be discontinuous, since people don't read _War and Peace_ in a single sitting. John
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