© 2012 Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University

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© 2012 Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University

WORLD 1 – MODULE 2Discovering Evolutionary Patterns in

Physical and Biological Systems

LEARNING UNIT 3Understanding the Evolutionary Principles of Life

Autopoietic Theory

© 2012 Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University

Autopoiesis: A Definition of Life

Autopoiesis means Self-Creation: from Greek words auto (self-) and poiesis (creation, production)

“Drawing Hands” by M.C. Escher

Organization of a system:• Those relations that must be present in order for something to exist• The configuration of the relationship between and among a system’s components

Structure of a system: • The “physical embodiment” of its [the system] organization• The actual components of a system and the way they relate to one another in order to constitute an unity

Conservation through change:Over time, the system changes its structure while maintaining its organization

The components of a cell produce other components which, in turn, continue to maintain the cell as an organized bounded structure that gives rise to these components.

© 2012 Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University© A Laszlo 2004

Our skin is new every month, our liver every six weeks, even our brain changes it’s content of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen every 12 months. All of us are much more like a river than anything frozen in time and space. . . The memory must be more permanent than matter.

What is a cell then? It is a memory that has built some matter around itself, forming a specific pattern. Your body is just the place your memory calls home.

Self-organizing systems are better thought of as energy processes that manifest themselves in physical forms.

- Margaret Wheatley Leadership & The New Sciences

Change as a natural process

© 2012 Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University

Characteristics of Autopoietic Systems

Energetically open: Able to perceive change in the environment and exchange energy and matter with it.

Self-referential:Structural changes always consistent with itself (the parts understand the whole)

Cognitive systems:Internal communication is identical to its coordination of behavior and does not require a nervous system. Cognition is a biological phenomenon.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waggle_dance

© 2012 Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University

Characteristics of Autopoietic Systems

Structure-Determined:Structural changes (and adaptations) are triggered, but not determined, by perturbations in the environment (the system is structurally closed).

The structure of the system selectively determines which perturbations in the environment the system will notice or ignore, and which new interactions will be created between its components.

Operationally closed, structure-determined system

Environment/SurroundingTriggers but does not determine change

Interactions

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Characteristics of Autopoietic SystemsStructural Coupling:Term used to depict a living system that interacts with another system or with its environment. It relates to the processes of coordination and co-evolution

• how two or more systems coordinate their activities• how the systems change and adapt over time

The mutual influence of the systems that interact in this way is bound to what the structure of each system can afford at a given timeThe history of structural changes defines a system’s history of learning or developmental path (i.e., evolution)The history of recurrent interaction between systems leads to structural congruence

Structural Coupling

Structural Congruence

© 2012 Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University

Implications of Autopoietic Theory Cognition is NOT the operation of neural information processing Cognition is a biological phenomenon that includes perception, emotion, action, as

well as language (whether or not we are talking) “Language arises when we see that the objects we bring forth by the distinctions

we make are just that – objects which arose in our awareness through the operations of distinction.” (Fell & Russell)

Information does not exist independently of a system. Instead the system selects which perturbations to notice, creates information, and assigns meaning to it through structural coupling – either with aspects of its environment or with anyother system

Language is the coordination of actions through the coordination of actions occurs (a recursive process)

Communication is not a process of exchange of information but the coordination of behavior

Autopoiesis theory is critical to the understanding of human behavior because when in a network of conversation with others, emotions limit the domain of our possible actions. (e.g., love versus fear)

© 2012 Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University

“[C]ulture arises from a complex, highly nonlinear dynamic. It is created by a social network involving multiple feedback loops through which values, beliefs, and rules of conduct are continually communicated, modified, and sustained. It emerges from a network of communications among individuals and, as it emerges, it produces constraints on their actions. In other words, the social structures, or rules of behavior, that constrain the actions of individuals are produced and continually reinforced by their own network of communications…People’s behavior is informed and restricted by their cultural identities, which in turn reinforces their sense of belonging.”

~ Fritjof Capra, The Web of Life

Social Autopoiesis