Source: A Framework for Information Systems Architecture, 1987, p. 276, cited in: Jaap Schekkerman (2003) How to Survive in the Jungle of Enterprise Architecture. p. 131
“The concept of "variety" [is] inseparable from that of "information."”
Source: An Introduction to Cybernetics (1956), Part 2: Variety, p. 140
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W. Ross Ashby 26
British psychiatrist 1903–1972Related quotes

Source: The Matter Myth: Towards 21st-century Science (1991), Ch. 1: 'The Death of Materialism', p. 9
Anatol Rapoport (1956), as quoted in: Richard C. Huseman (1977) Readings in interpersonal & organizational communication. p. 35
1950s

"Optical transmission" in Information Theory : Papers Read at a Symposium on Information Theory (1952), as cited in Living Systems (1978) by James Grier Miller, p. 12
Context: Incomplete knowledge of the future, and also of the past of the transmitter from which the future might be constructed, is at the very basis of the concept of information. On the other hand, complete ignorance also precludes communication; a common language is required, that is to say an agreement between the transmitter and the receiver regarding the elements used in the communication process...
[The information of a message can] be defined as the 'minimum number of binary decisions which enable the receiver to construct the message, on the basis of the data already available to him.' These data comprise both the convention regarding the symbols and the language used, and the knowledge available at the moment when the message started.
Source: Sociology and modern systems theory (1967), p. 47.
Source: Information, The New Language of Science (2003), Chapter 9, Figuring the Odds, How probability measures information, p. 70
General System Theory (1968), 4. Advances in General Systems Theory

Source: Lateral Thinking : Creativity Step by Step (1970), p. 159.
Context: The concept of lateral thinking is insight restructuring and this is brought about through the rearrangement of information. Rearrangement is the basis of lateral thinking and rearrangement means escape from the rigid patterns established by experience. The rearrangement process is incorporated in the concept of the (re) laxative. The laxative is a rearranging device. It is the means whereby one can escape from established patterns and create new ones. The laxative allows the arrangement of information in new ways from which new patterns can arise. The concept of the laxative is crystallized into a definite language tool. This language tool is PO. Once one learns the function and use of PO one has learned how to use lateral thinking. The whole concept of lateral thinking is concentrated in the use of this language tool. Lateral thinking could be said to be the management of PO just as logical thinking is the management of NO.
Source: Meeting the challenge (2009), p. xxiii.