Paradigms for Abstracting Systems.

Discussion of abstracting systems focuses on the paradigm concept and identifies and explains four paradigms: communicational, or information theory; physical, including information retrieval; cognitive, including information processing and artificial intelligence; and systemic, including quality management. Emphasizes multidimensionality and interdependence, and the need to consider all four paradigms as a totality. (Contains 77 references.) (LRW)