We use the term “behavior” widely. Do we really know what we mean by that? Here’s an entry from the International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics.

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0247
BEHAVIOR 1) – 4)

1. “The system of interconnected and expedient actions carried out by an organism” (UNESCO-UNEP, 1983, p.6)

2. A repetitive sequence or pattern of actions or operations, and resulting states, characteristic of a specific system.

The second definition is more general than the first, since it can apply to non-living systems, as well as to societies of organisms.

The concept of behavior, when referring to a complex system, may be associated with an interconnected network of actions.

G. PASK gives the following examples: “The behavior of a steam engine is a recurrent cycle of steam injection and piston mouvements that remains invariant. The behavior of a cat is…