+
+Biology and other complex systems would then be path-dependent evolved
+systems.
+
+Yet it appears that some genetic 'solutions' arrive from multiple pathways,
+inasmuch as the same solution seems to pop up in different organisms in
+different environments and eras.
You need to give specific examples to illustrate this remark, or else it
seems you are just citing parallel evolution, which is pretty
straightforward under a cybernetic analysis.
+
+Also, I am uncomfortable with 'path-dependence' as a universal feature of
+complex systems. It hearkens back to classical linear determinism (one fixed
+state inevitably leads to another future state), which seems contrary to the
+contemporary notion of emergent properties from complex systems.
No, it is a case of future states being *contingent* on present states.
Linear determinism is path INdependence: from here, you MUST go there.
(actually path independence is just another name for predestination, isn't
it?). Path dependence says that the components of the present system will
affect its ability to adapt when circumstances change, but the results are
far from inevitable.
One subsystem might collapse completely under the strain and imperil the
entire system, or some previously trivial elements might "pull in" new
factors from the environment and form an entirely new functional subsystem
with pronounced adaptive advantages. Or the current system might be
adquate to handle the crisis without further change.
+
+-Mike Lash-
Paul
---------------------------------
"Information is entropy."
- Jean Baudrillard