synergeticsn.
/ˌsɪnəˈdʒɛtɪks/, U.S. /ˌsɪnərˈdʒɛdɪks/ 1. The phenomenon of synergistic activity or behaviour, as a field of study; spec. an empirical discipline that seeks to deal with the overall behaviour of systems (typically social or conceptual systems) in flux, in so far as it cannot be inferred from the behaviour of components of the system.In the specific sense, deriving from, and often with reference to, the writing of R. Buckminster Fuller (quot. 1975).
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1955 A. Coulter Synergetics i. 1 The word ‘synergetics’ means, literally, ‘working together’. It is here used to denote the study of interactions in a functioning system. Potentially, it is an evolving set of abstract ideas and precision tools applicable to any complex system, from factories to living organisms. Here, we are concerned solely with its application to human beings.
1963 R. Buckminster Fuller in Buckminster Fuller Reader (1970) xvi. 345 In 1960, my company, Synergetics, Inc., delivered two one-hundred-and-fourteen-foot-in-diameter ‘quarter-acre’ floor-space geodesic domes to the Ford Motor Company.]
1965 Amer. Econ. Rev. 55 459 Those of us who have been engaged in what we call synergetics—or the present invasion of political theory by economists—have begun to wonder whether [etc.].
1975 R. Buckminster Fuller & E. J. Applewhite Synergetics i. 13 Synergetics is the exploratory strategy of starting with the whole and the known behavior of some of its parts and the progressive discovery of the integral unknowns and their progressive comprehension of the hierarchy of generalized principles.
1977 Acad. of Managem. Rev. 2 615/1 Fuller's synergetics is a geometrical-mathematical analysis, not a new social doctrine or ideology.
1993 H. J. Mosler in D. Steiner & M. Nauser Human Ecol. xi. 178 Concepts from the science of synergetics can be adapted profitably in a variety of natural and social science.
2006 G. Buzsáki Rhythms of Brain ii. 42 According to Buckminster Fuller..synergetics is a new strategy of design science, which starts with the whole rather than parts.
2011 W. Zeiler in M. Bodart & A. Evrard Plea 2011: Archit. & Sustainable Devel. II. 357/1 In this paper the synergetics between sun and building, especially the occupant of the buildings is looked at.
2. Physics. A branch of science dealing with the occurrence of order in physical systems not in thermodynamic equilibrium.
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1972 SIAM Rev. 14 626 A combination of numerical and analytical approaches [to non-linear dispersive systems], first called ‘synergetics’ by S. Ulam, has played an important part in the last decade.
1973 H. Haken (title) Synergetics: cooperative phenomena in multicomponent systems: proceedings of the Symposium on Synergetics.
1995 Nature 16 Feb. 571/2 Another potential contribution of physics to evolution has been inspired by synergetics, a branch of the physics of dissipative systems.
2010 S. Liu & Y. Lin Grey Syst. i. 8 According to the slaving principle of synergetics, one can transform the original high-dimensional equation into a low-dimensional evolution equation of order-parameters by eliminating the fast-relaxing variables.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1955