Life's complexity: self-organization, evolution or both?
- From: dkomo <dkomo871@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2007 02:02:30 -0400 (EDT)
In Roger Lewin's _Complexity: Life at the Edge of Chaos_, at the end of
Chapter 7 "Complexity and the Reality of Progress", there is a paragraph
that nicely summarizes the differences between two major paradigms --
that of evolution and that of complex systems theory:
"The pure Spencerian view of the world, therefore, is that increased
complexity is an inevitable manifestation of the system and is driven by
the internal dynamics of complex systems: heterogeneity from from
homogeneity, order out of chaos. The pure Darwinian view is that
complexity is built solely by natural selection, a blind, nondirectional
force; and there is no inevitable rise in complexity. The new science
of Complexity combines elements of both: internal and external forces
apply, and increased complexity is to be expected as a fundamental
property of complex dynamical systems. A fundamental property of
complex adaptive systems is the counterintuitive crystallization of
order -- order for free, in Stu Kauffman's terms -- upon which selection
may act. Such systems may, through selection, bring themselves to the
edge of chaos, a constant process of coevolution, a constant adaptation.
Part of the lure of the edge of chaos is an optimization of
computational ability, whether the system is a cellular automaton or a
biological species evolving with others as part of a complex ecological
community. At the edge of chaos, bigger brains are built."
"Is human consciousness to be found there, too?"
--p. 149
By the "Spencerian view" he's referering to Herbert Spencer, the 19th
century English intellectual who had a grand theory about the
condensation of order from disorder -- heterogeneity from homogeneity as
he called it. He said that dynamic systems have a tendency to become
more concentrated and heterogeneous as they evolve. He called it The
Law of Evolution, but Spencer was talking about all dynamical systems,
not just biological systems -- physical worlds, biological worlds, and
social worlds. The formation of stars and galaxies, living organisms,
nations and societies.
--dkomo@xxxxxxxx
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