System Architecture and Complexity

9Fundamental Properties of Systems of Systems

9.1. Semantic invariance: notion of a semantic map

The interoperability of systems and the general context of the organized growth of systems that is demonstrated by this fundamental notion allows us to review and specify the initial definitions discussed in Chapters 2 and 3. When we say “a set of elements in interaction”, questions arise concerning (a) the quantum of elementary information, the smallest element below which the concept of an element disappears, and (b) the quantum of elementary interaction between the elements, in other words, a transaction. Everything else being equal, this is equivalent to the notion of atoms that is found in particle physics and in the theory of the standard model of particles. This basic element of a system is generally known as a “module”, a process or even a building block, but it is, fundamentally, the same thing: it is, the element that conveys the transformation that is carried out, a quantum of information, something that gives meaning to the use.

REMARK.– This is L. Wittgenstein’s “ask for a use”.

The definition of the inside/outside of a module is purely conventional in nature; it is a contract. There is no module “in itself”.

To give an example, the concepts of a bolt or gears, on the one hand, have not become particular in their meanings, whereas an automobile, on the other hand, has many specific meanings. However, a piece of equipment such as a gear box or a clutch is something that ...