totilstands

Totilstands is a neologism used in discussions of complex systems to denote the complete, time-specific description of a system's status. The term is not widely standardized in scholarly literature and may appear with varying emphasis depending on the discipline. In general, a totilstands representation includes the values of all variables considered relevant by a given model or analysis, together with contextual information such as the timestamp, location, and recent history.

A totilstands can be expressed in several forms, including a state vector, a structured data record, or a configuration map. It is intended to serve as a snapshot that enables reproduction of a system's behavior, comparison across experiments, and the construction of higher-level summaries or estimators. In practice, the content of a totilstands is a modeling choice: some frameworks include only observable variables, while others attempt to encode latent factors or estimated quantities.

Uses and implications: in simulation and control theory, totilstands can aid state estimation, fault diagnosis, and scenario analysis by providing a reference for what a system like a plant, software system, or ecological network is doing at a point in time. Limitations include the potential size of the representation and the difficulty of capturing all relevant variables without introducing redundancy.

Etymology and status: The term appears to be a constructed compound combining 'total' with the common word 'state' from Nordic languages. It remains informal and context-dependent, and readers should consult field-specific definitions when encountered.

See also: state vector, configuration space, snapshot, state estimation, data provenance.