Complex Systems Management: Key Characteristics and Ontological Limitations of Control Object Complexity

This article examines the management of physical, chemical, biological, social, and technical systems. The properties and capabilities of such systems are determined by a set of interrelated characteristics: discrete or continuous control, the presence of feedback, and the type of stability of the control object. The most important factor determining the implementation of a control system is the complexity of the control object. The article considers the specifics of discrete control of complex systems with a large number of relationships between the parameters characterizing the control object. Various discrete control options are identified, including hybrid ones that possess some of the properties of continuous control. Conclusion obtained as a result of the analysis of various particular control system implementation options are compared with an ontological assessment of the problem of managing complex systems, which allows us to state the exceptionally discrete nature of managing complex systems, both natural and artificial. The methodology for studying control systems for complex objects is based on a comprehensive analysis of the characteristics that determine the control implementation option, as well as an ontological understanding of the existing fundamental limitation on the continuous control of complex systems. The main scientific results obtained by the authors in the article are: the formation of a representative presentation of a variety of control system implementation options; a statement of the impossibility of constructing complex systems, including systems with feedback, with continuous control; a reasoned choice of discrete control as the only possible one for complex control objects; a description, functional and algorithmic positioning of hybrid control options based on discrete control, but endowed with some properties of continuous control. Analysis of the feasibility of implementing various control options within the ontological (maximum in width) representation reveals the existence of a limitation in the implementation of continuous control for complex objects. For artificial systems that are epistemological in their genesis, and therefore are a special case of systems defined within the framework of ontology, this limitation is also relevant.