Self-organization in Science
and Society: a history
Democratis
460 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 Kropotkin
•
•
•
•
1842-1921, 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
Anarchists in Spain, US,
UK, Switzerland, etc.
French biologists Yves
Delange and Marie
Goldsmith
Mathematician
Sophia Kovalevsky
Maksim Kovalevskii,
Russian sociologist
Russian engineer
Peter Palchinsky
and wife Nina
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his unpublished papers on fluid dynamics when he discovered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 militaryindustrial 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.