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WORLD 1 – MODULE 1A Quest to Understand Where

Everything Comes From

LEARNING UNIT 3Appreciating Things from the Perspectiveof Complex Adaptive and Living Systems

Introduction to the Theoryof Complex Adaptive Systems and Living System

© 2012 Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University

1) Complex Adaptive Systems and Living Systems Defined

2) Properties and Characteristics of Complex Adaptive Systems and Living Systems• Holarchic Structure• Open and Purposeful Systems• Adaptation, Self-Organization and Emergence• Sensitivity to Initial Conditions• System Adaptation and Evolution• Life Creativity

Lecture Outline

© 2012 Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University

Defining Complex Adaptive Systems and Living Systems

Bacteria: Complex adaptive systems and living systems

A number of interacting elements capable of examining and responding to each other’s behavior using a set of rules that aim at improving their own behavior as well as the behavior of the overall system.

No centralized control mechanisms to coordinate behavior.

Non-linear processes and multiple intertwined feedback loops.

Crystals: Simple systems

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Holarchic Structure

Cell Cell

Tissue

Organ

Body

Family

Community

Ecosystem

Bioregion

And so on…

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Open and Purposeful Systems

Open Systems… …exchange information, matter, and energy with the environment (critical for adaptation and self-organization)

Purposeful Systems… …use feedback loops to achieve internal goals (such as homeostasis)

Source: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2006/03_07_06.html

© 2012 Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University

Adaptation, Self-Organization and Emergence

Adaptation (a property of the elements)Each element is able to learn and initiate structural changes in the face of changes in its environment.

Self-OrganizationThe spontaneous emergence of new structures and new forms of behavior in open systems far from equilibrium, characterized by internal feedback loops and described mathematically by non-linear equations.

Emergence (a property of the whole)The system exhibits properties and behaviors that are not present in the parts and cannot be deduced from the analysis of the parts.

© 2012 Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University

Sensitivity to Initial Conditions: A Characteristic of all Chaotic Systems

Source: http://langley.atmos.colostate.edu/grp21.html

Chaotic system produces ordered structures and patterns

Lorentz Butterfly Effect

© 2012 Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University

Bifurcation

Greater flexibility and creativity

More structural complexity

More degrees of freedom

Higher flows of matter, info, energy

Time

Life Conditions

New Life Conditions

Regression path

Surge to New Dynamic Stability

Extinction path

Critical point

Dynamic Stability/ Equilibrium

Chaos Phase- Outcome ???

Capacity

System Adaptation and Evolution

© 2012 Giordano Bruno GlobalShift University

“So the driving force of evolution, according to the emerging new theory, is to be found not in the chance events of random mutations, but in life’s inherent tendency to create novelty, in the spontaneous emergence of increasing complexity and order.”

~ Fritjof Capra, The Web of Life

Life Creativity

Source: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Paleoclimatology_CloseUp/paleoclimatology_closeup_2.php