means in any case Exchange with the Environment, but depending on whether one thinks of biological or organic systems or of sense-oriented systems, i.e. of social systems (communication systems) and of mental systems (consciousness and the like), this Idea of Exchange takes different forms. For biological systems, one thinks primarily of energy input and output of useless energy; for sense systems, one thinks primarily of exchange of information. A sense system draws information from its environment, interprets, if we may say so, surprises, and is built into a network of other systems that responds to this information-processing system. The basic condition that explains entropy is the same in both cases, namely exchange relations between system and environment. This is what the term open system refers to.
⇒ Open System ⇒ Open Systems Theory ⇒ Quantum Open Systems: Idea of Exchange, Concept of Openness