Mark Musolino (990727.1040)
[From Erling Jorgensen (990727.0210 CDT)]
...causation can occur as a side effect of independently operating
control systems, who have no "knowledge" of each other. That is to
say, neither one is controlling for "cooperating" or any such thing;
they just have a major effect on something the other is controlling
for. But this effect (whether it's mutual or unilateral, I'm not
sure) can form the basis for "collectively stabilizing their shared
environment," to use your words.What I think is especially essential in what you raise is this
matter of "populations of control systems". This has not been
discussed much on CSGNet.
...what are the properties and relationships_qua_ control systems
that arise (emerge?) when they take on a stabilized multicellular
arrangement.
I picked these particular sections out of Mr.Jorgensen's recent post because
they together touch on the concept of emergent properties in complex systems
- why and how can a community of "things" (cells, organisms, control systems
in general) display properties/behavior that none of the individual
components do ? Do groups of control loops "self-organize" into
hierarchical structures ? If so, how?
Is there a central controller of some sort, or does the global structure
arise as a result of each component adhering only to local "rules" ? Is the
"whole-greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts" behavior a natural consequence of
this self-organization ? We can ask similar questions ad nauseum.
Is anyone in this group interested in complexity theory, and its associated
ideas of autopoiesis, self-organization, emergent properties, the
edge-of-chaos, etc. ? That's where my mind is these days, and I'm looking
for good conversation. Thanks.
- Mark