Re: Super-organisms as analogies or metaphors?

DON MIKULECKY (MIKULECKY@VCUVAX.BITNET)
Wed, 2 Oct 1996 12:05:21 -0400

> Don Mikulecky:
>>I humbly suggest that super-organism/super-brain ideas
>>are NOT analogies but metaphors.
>>
>>Here's why:
>>A true analogical model finds an equivalent FORMAL system to model
>>different NATURAL systems. There is an encoding of the natural system
>>into the formal system and then a decoding. In the formal system we
>>manipulate by implication to try to duplicate causal events in nature.
>>If the whole thing "commutes" we have a successful model.
>>
>>In the cases being discussed there are mainly one way codings from
>>the body and/or organism to larger natural systems. These correspond
>>to decodings in an analogical model, but there is no encoding.
>>Furthermore there appears to be confusion between the natural systems
>>sought to be understood and the formal systems used to model them.
>>I see little hope for progress in the discussion until this all gets
>>sorted out.
>
> If I understand your definition of analogy, the comparisons made between
> organisms and societies ARE analogical, not merely metaphorical. The
> "formal system" in this case is the theory of metasystems (which is
> formally still poorly developed, but exists on a more abstract level than
> any natural system). It is decoded into two different types of natural
> systems, multicellular organisms on the one hand, society on the other.

Yes, if that's what is happening it is an analogical model. I did not
see that folks were seriously doing that though? They REALLY think
that superorganisms have the same formal model as multicellular organisms?
Seems farfetched at best!

>
> Even if we forget about the shared formal system, there are *two way*
> mappings, from organism to society and back. Until now the discussion has
> been focusing on the direction: properties of organisms -> properties of
> societies. Yet, we should not forget that many people have tried to analyse
> organisms by using concepts describing societies. For example, Minsky's
> "Society of mind" uses society as a metaphor for the brain, many people
> have applied the market metaphor to biological systems such as the immune
> system, and the unbiquitous concept of "hierarchy" which is applied to
> organisms and all kinds of complex systems is originally derived from
> social hierarchies.
>
>
Yes, I have even seen "statistical mechanical" treatments of social systems.
Reductionism is a powerful idea, but, unfortunately, often misused.

> ________________________________________________________________________
> Dr. Francis Heylighen, Systems Researcher fheyligh@vnet3.vub.ac.be
> PESP, Free University of Brussels, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
> Tel +32-2-6292525; Fax +32-2-6292489; http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html

Best wishes,
Don Mikulecky