Self-organization in Science and Society: a history.

Self-organization in Science and Society: a history

Democratis460 BCE to 370 BCE, Greece

• All matter is made up of many tiny indivisible

particles, “atoma.” Distinguished “primary” properties of single atoms from their “secondary” properties as collective wholes.

• Connected philosophical foundations for democracy with “emergent” theory: in “self-determining animals” the secondary properties could allow autonomy of behavior (mind? soul?).

“Poverty under democracy is as much to be preferred to so-called prosperity under an autocracy, as is freedom to slavery.”

Peter Kropotkin1842-1921, Russia

• Born Prince Kropotkin, became disgusted with contrast between the extravagances of court life and the poverty of Russian peasants. • Studied biology and geography; volunteered for expedition to

eastern Siberia. Expected Darwin’s prediction of competition, instead saw cooperation in both society and nature.

• Published Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution in 1890 as a rebuttal to T.H. Huxley and other social Darwinists.

• Travels to join international workers movements; survives prison in Russia, assassination in London, arrest in Paris. deportation from Switzerland. In 1917 returns to Russia for revolution, but stops when the Bolsheviks come to power.

Mutual Aid• “Life is struggle; and in that struggle the fittest survive.

But [there are] two different aspects of the struggle: the direct one, for food and safety among separate individuals, and the struggle which Darwin described as “metaphorical” – the struggle, very often collective, against adverse circumstances.”

• S.J. Gould notes Russian land and culture emphasized struggle against harsh environment, while Darwin’s tropical fieldwork and British culture emphasized competition and Malthus.

Peter Kropotkin Connections

Maksim Kovalevskii, Russian sociologist

French biologists Yves Delange and Marie Goldsmith

Russian engineer Peter Palchinskyand wife Nina

Mathematician Sophia Kovalevsky

Anarchists in Spain, US, UK, Switzerland, etc.

Lewis Fry Richardson 1881-1953, England

• Noted fractal scaling in turbulence and coastlines. • Created the first vision of parallel computing.• Quaker pacifist and mathematician; he destroyed his unpublished papers on fluid dynamics when he discovered the military was using it to spread poison gas. • Launched the first quantitative models for predicting the onset

of war. Discovered our common assumptions (eg arms build-up will scare off enemies) are wrong.

“Big whirls have little whirls that feed on their velocity, and little whirls have lesser whirls and so on to viscosity”

1st Wave Cybernetics 1947-1967

• Norbert Wiener: Invented foundations of cybernetics from work on feedback systems. Critiqued both USSR and US for lacking sufficient “feedback” from citizens to government; sought alliance with labor unions to improve social impact of automation. Anti-war, multicultural, and feminist ideas.

• Kenneth Boulding: Quaker peace activist (SDS); a founder of “evolutionary economics” (includes positive feedback and cooperation rather than competition and equilibrium).

• Francisco Varela and Humberto Maturana: Chilean biologists who introduced theory of self-organzation called “autopoesis.” supported Salvador Allende (the first Marxist politician ever elected in a free election), and were forced to flee when the military coup of General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the Allende goverment on September 11, 1973.

Two Dimensions of Cybernetics

The political polarization of cybernetics: basins of attraction

Coupling between political and technological maps in Bateson versus Mead

2nd Wave Cybernetics to Complexity Theory 1977-1987

• Genetic Algorithms: John Holland (U. Michigan) finds that a population of mutating, reproducing digital systems can be selected for problem-solving behavior.

• Dissipative Systems: Belgian physicist I. Prigogene writes book on B-Z reactions, termite mounds, etc.

• Decentralized computing: Stuart Kauffman’s Random Boolian networks show how self-organization creates pools of stability, Hopfield and others re-animate analog neural networks. Rodney Brooks creates decentralized robotics

• Artificial Life: Craig Reynolds’ “boids” show spontaneous flocking behavior. Dawkins and Sims – “biomorph.” Steve Wolfram and Chris Langton: cellular automata maximize complexity at “the edge of chaos.” Thomas Ray: Tierra, an artificial ecosystem. Popular versions: SimLife, SimEarth, SimCity. Foundation of the Santa Fe Institute.

But what happened to social/political connections?

• While some of the “2nd wave/Complexity Theory” scientists still had humanist leanings, many others did not

• Self-organization (along with decnetralization, holism, organicism, etc) was no longer the property of anarchists and peace activists—now the military-industrial establishment wants it too.

• At the same time, the counter-culture had reversed some of its polarities:

Conclusion• Thus we cannot rely on a “formula” for freedom. It

is not the case that “holism” is always on the side of good and “reductionism” on the side of evil.

• On the other hand, discoveries in complexity theory and self-organization open up new opportunities. It is every generation’s responsibility to grasp such new scientific tools and apply them to the social problems people like Peter Kropotkin, Sophia Kovalevskya, and Norbert Wiener brought into their investigations.