Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun ecology A dynamical system which returns to a trajectory, as opposed to a system which return to a particular state, which is termed homeostasis.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • But in his most recent book, The Revenge of Gaia, Lovelock points out that the earth's homeorhesis is not immune to sudden changes brought about by alterations in the environment that produce cascading effects, such as massive deforestation, greenhouse gas production and other human activities.

    Archive 2008-04-01 2008

  • One can think of complex societies as exhibiting homeorhesis, a term coined by the prominent evolutionary geneticist Conrad Waddington to describe dynamic systems that return to their trajectory when perturbed by events in the exogenous environment, as opposed to homeostasis, in which the system returns to a prior state.

    Archive 2006-10-01 2006

  • One can think of complex societies as exhibiting homeorhesis, a term coined by the prominent evolutionary geneticist Conrad Waddington to describe dynamic systems that return to their trajectory when perturbed by events in the exogenous environment, as opposed to homeostasis, in which the system returns to a prior state.

    Of Chreods, Criticality, and Collapse 2006

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