death organizing life
Onar Aam (onar@HSR.NO)
Tue, 29 Aug 1995 01:50:22 +0100
Death plays a crucial role in the organization of life. We know for
sure that in multicellular organisms cell deliberately commit suicide
(apoptosis) and that the this is most important organization mechanism
in the regulatory system. Or rather more, it is more an organization
principle than a mechanism, namely the principle of cancellation.
Personally I think this may be the crucial link between the recent
Complexity branch of science and the more systems oriented theories,
like autopoiesis.
The cancellation principle is simple. Dynamic
self-organization is built on the annihilation of opposites. Birth
cancels death, mitosis cancels apoptosis, energy consumption cancels
dissipation, compensation cancels deformation. The pattern that
forms in the wake of the annihilation is self-organized. This is so
general and so fundamental to dynamic self-organization that I would
call it crucial. This principle is what connects non-equilibrium
thermodynamics with complexity theory and autopoiesis in a fundamental
way. This is what they have in common.
The most important consequence of this principle is 1 that annihilation
of opposites is balanced and out of balance at the same time and 2)
that we get a *discontinuous* organization of life.
Onar.