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The Systems View of Life I. Living Systems

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The Systems View of Life I. Living Systems Fritjof Capra Bodø Seminar May 19, 2015 The Systems View of Life I. Living Systems Ecological Sustainability A sustainable human community is designed in such a manner that its ways of life, businesses, economy, physical structures, and technologies respect, honor, and cooperate with nature’s inherent ability to sustain life. A New Scientific Understanding of Life The material world, ultimately is a network of inseparable patterns of relationship. A New Scientific Understanding of Life The material world, ultimately is a network of inseparable patterns of relationship. The planet as a whole is a living, self-regulating system. A New Scientific Understanding of Life The material world, ultimately is a network of inseparable patterns of relationship. The planet as a whole is a living, self-regulating system. The brain, the immune system, the bodily tissues, and even each cell is a living, cognitive system. A New Scientific Understanding of Life The material world, ultimately is a network of inseparable patterns of relationship. The planet as a whole is a living, self-regulating system. The brain, the immune system, the bodily tissues, and even each cell is a living, cognitive system. Evolution is a cooperative dance in which creativity and the constant emergence of novelty are the driving forces. A New Scientific Understanding of Life With the new emphasis on complexity, networks and patterns of organization, a new science of qualities is slowly emerging. Ueda attractor Living Systems A living system — organism, ecosystem, or social system — is an integrated whole whose properties cannot be reduced to those of smaller parts. “The whole is more than the sum of its parts.” Barnraising in an Amish community Living Systems Systems theory tells us that all living systems share a set of common properties and principles of organization. Systems thinking can be applied to integrate academic disciplines and to discover similarities between different phenomena within the broad range of living systems. Complexity Theory A new mathematical language for dealing with the complexity of living systems — a nonlinear mathematics. Chaos theory: a theory of a new kind of order, revealed by the new mathematics of complexity. Complexity Theory The new mathematics is a mathematics of patterns, of relationships. Strange attractors and fractals are visual descriptions of the system’s complex dynamics. Metabolism — The Breath of Life Metabolism is the ceaseless flow of energy and matter through a network of chemical reactions, which enables a living organism to continually generate, repair, and perpetuate itself. Metabolism The understanding of metabolism involves two aspects: (1) the flow of energy and matter; (2) the network of chemical reactions. Living Networks Networks are the basic pattern of life. Ecosystems are networks of organisms; organisms are networks of cells, organs and organ systems; cells are networks of molecules. Wherever we see life, we see networks. molecules cells organisms ecosystems Living Networks Living networks are self-generating. They continually create, or recreate, themselves by transforming or replacing their components. Humberto Maturana Francisco Varela Theory of Autopoiesis Coexistence of Stability and Change What remains stable is the system’s pattern of organization; what continually changes is the organism’s structure. Two types of structural changes: • changes of self-renewal, • developmental changes. Self-organization A living system responds to a disturbance ion its own, autonomous way. You can never direct a living system; you can only disturb it. Choosing to Be Disturbed The system not only specifies its structural changes; it also specifies which disturbances will trigger them. A living system maintains the freedom to decide what to notice and what will disturb it. Structural Coupling The system is coupled with its environment in such a way that each interaction, each disturbance, results in structural changes. Structural Coupling Over time, a living organism will form its own pathway of structural coupling. The structure of a living organism is a record of previous structural changes: all living beings have a history. Structural Determinism The behavior of a living organism is determined by its own structure. Being determined by its own structure, rather than by outside forces, the behavior of a living organism is both determined and free. Social Networks Living networks in human society are networks of communications. Like biological networks, they are self- generating. Each communication creates thoughts and meaning, which give rise to further communications, and thus the entire network generates itself. Meaning The dimension of meaning is crucial to understand social networks. Material structures are usually produced for a purpose, according to some design, and they embody some meaning. Culture Over time, social networks produce a shared system of beliefs, explanations, and values — a common context of meaning, known as culture. Through culture individuals acquire identities as members of the social network, and in this way the network generates its own boundary. Biol. Networks Social Networks Operate in the realm Operate in the realm of of matter; meaning; produce material also produce the nonmaterial structures; characteristics of culture; exchange molecules exchange information and in networks of ideas in networks of chemical reactions; communications; produce and sustain a produce and sustain a material boundary that nonmaterial cultural boundary imposes constraints on that imposes constraints on the chemistry that the behavior of its members. takes place inside it. The Emergence of Novelty Creativity—the generation of new forms—is a key property of all living systems. Emergent Structures The creativity of life expresses itself through the process of emergence. The structures created in this process — biological structures as well as social structures — may be called “emergent structures.” Designed and Emergent Structures Human beings also create structures by design. But even these designed structures, ultimately, emerge in a creative process from the minds of one or several designers. René Descartes Mind — the “thinking thing” (res cogitans) Matter — the “extended thing” (res extensa) Gregory Bateson Humberto Maturana “mental process” “cognition” Mind is a ! Santiago Theory of Cognition Humberto Maturana Francisco Varela Santiago Theory of Cognition Cognition is the activity involved in the self-generation and self- perpetuation of living networks — the very process of life. Mind is immanent in matter at all levels of life. Thank you.
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