Self-organization

Self-organization, also called spontaneous order in the social sciences, is a process where some form of overall order arises from local interactions between parts of an initially disordered system. The process can be spontaneous when sufficient energy is available, not needing control by any external agent. It is often triggered by seemingly random fluctuations, amplified by positive feedback. The resulting organization is wholly decentralized, distributed over all the components of the system. As such, the organization is typically robust and able to survive or self-repair substantial perturbation. Chaos theory discusses self-organization in terms of islands of predictability in a sea of chaotic unpredictability.

Self-organization occurs in many physical, chemical, biological, robotic, and cognitive systems. Examples of self-organization include crystallization, thermal convection of fluids, chemical oscillation, animal swarming, neural circuits, and black markets.

Overview

Self-organization is realized<ref name="G&P 1971">Glansdorff, P., Prigogine, I. (1971). Thermodynamic Theory of Structure, Stability and Fluctuations, London: Wiley-Interscience ISBN 0-471-30280-5</ref> in the physics of non-equilibrium processes, and in chemical reactions, where it is often characterized as self-assembly. The concept has proven useful in biology, from the molecular to the ecosystem level.<ref name=":0">Compare: Camazine, Scott (2003). Self-organization in Biological Systems. Princeton studies in complexity (reprint ed.). Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-11624-2. Retrieved April 5, 2016.</ref> Cited examples of self-organizing behaviour also appear in the literature of many other disciplines, both in the natural sciences and in the social sciences (such as economics or anthropology). Self-organization has also been observed in mathematical systems such as cellular automata.<ref name=":1">Ilachinski, Andrew (2001). Cellular Automata: A Discrete Universe. World Scientific. p. 247. ISBN 978-981-238-183-5. We have already seen ample evidence for what is arguably the single most impressive general property of CA, namely their capacity for self-organization</ref> Self-organization is an example of the related concept of emergence.<ref>Feltz, Bernard; et al. (2006). Self-organization and Emergence in Life Sciences. Springer. p. 1. ISBN 978-1-4020-3916-4.</ref>

Self-organization relies on four basic ingredients:<ref>Bonabeau, Eric; Dorigo, Marco; Theraulaz, Guy (1999). Swarm intelligence: from natural to artificial systems. OUP. pp. 9–11. ISBN 978-0-19-513159-8.</ref>

strong dynamical non-linearity, often (though not necessarily) involving positive and negative feedback
balance of exploitation and exploration
multiple interactions among components
availability of energy (to overcome the natural tendency toward entropy, or loss of free energy)

Principles

The cybernetician William Ross Ashby formulated the original principle of self-organization in 1947.<ref name="ashby1947">Ashby, W. R. (1947). "Principles of the Self-Organizing Dynamic System". The Journal of General Psychology. 37 (2): 125–28. doi:10.1080/00221309.1947.9918144. PMID 20270223.</ref><ref>Ashby, W. R. (1962). "Principles of the self-organizing system", pp. 255–78 in Principles of Self-Organization. Heinz von Foerster and George W. Zopf, Jr. (eds.) U.S. Office of Naval Research.</ref> It states that any deterministic dynamic system automatically evolves towards a state of equilibrium that can be described in terms of an attractor in a basin of surrounding states. Once there, the further evolution of the system is constrained to remain in the attractor. This constraint implies a form of mutual dependency or coordination between its constituent components or subsystems. In Ashby's terms, each subsystem has adapted to the environment formed by all other subsystems.<ref name=ashby1947/>

The cybernetician Heinz von Foerster formulated the principle of "order from noise" in 1960.<ref>Von Foerster, H. (1960). "On self-organizing systems and their environments", pp. 31–50 in Self-organizing systems. M.C. Yovits and S. Cameron (eds.), Pergamon Press, London</ref> It notes that self-organization is facilitated by random perturbations ("noise") that let the system explore a variety of states in its state space. This increases the chance that the system will arrive into the basin of a "strong" or "deep" attractor, from which it then quickly enters the attractor itself. The biophysicist Henri Atlan developed this concept by proposing the principle of "complexity from noise"<ref>See occurrences on Google Books.</ref><ref>François, Charles, ed. (2011) [1997]. International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2nd ed.). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. p. 107. ISBN 978-3-11-096801-9.</ref> (French: le principe de complexité par le bruit)<ref>See occurrences on Google Books.</ref> first in the 1972 book L'organisation biologique et la théorie de l'information and then in the 1979 book Entre le cristal et la fumée. The physicist and chemist Ilya Prigogine formulated a similar principle as "order through fluctuations"<ref>Nicolis, G. and Prigogine, I. (1977). Self-organization in nonequilibrium systems: From dissipative structures to order through fluctuations. Wiley, New York.</ref> or "order out of chaos".<ref>Prigogine, I. and Stengers, I. (1984). Order out of chaos: Man's new dialogue with nature. Bantam Books.</ref> It is applied in the method of simulated annealing for problem solving and machine learning.<ref>Ahmed, Furqan; Tirkkonen, Olav (January 2016). "Simulated annealing variants for self-organized resource allocation in small cell networks". Applied Soft Computing. 38: 762–70. doi:10.1016/j.asoc.2015.10.028. S2CID 10126852.</ref>

History

The idea that the dynamics of a system can lead to an increase in its organization has a long history. The ancient atomists such as Democritus and Lucretius believed that a designing intelligence is unnecessary to create order in nature, arguing that given enough time and space and matter, order emerges by itself.<ref>Palmer, Ada (October 2014). Reading Lucretius in the Renaissance. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-72557-7. Ada Palmer explores how Renaissance readers, such as Machiavelli, Pomponio Leto, and Montaigne, actually ingested and disseminated Lucretius, ... and shows how ideas of emergent order and natural selection, so critical to our current thinking, became embedded in Europe's intellectual landscape before the seventeenth century.</ref>

The philosopher René Descartes presents self-organization hypothetically in the fifth part of his 1637 Discourse on Method. He elaborated on the idea in his unpublished work The World.<ref group="lower-alpha">For related history, see Aram Vartanian, Diderot and Descartes.</ref>

Immanuel Kant used the term "self-organizing" in his 1790 Critique of Judgment, where he argued that teleology is a meaningful concept only if there exists such an entity whose parts or "organs" are simultaneously ends and means. Such a system of organs must be able to behave as if it has a mind of its own, that is, it is capable of governing itself.<ref name=Kant>German Aesthetic. CUP Archive. pp. 64–. GGKEY:TFTHBB91ZH2.</ref>

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Sadi Carnot (1796–1832) and Rudolf Clausius (1822–1888) discovered the second law of thermodynamics in the 19th century. It states that total entropy, sometimes understood as disorder, will always increase over time in an isolated system. This means that a system cannot spontaneously increase its order without an external relationship that decreases order elsewhere in the system (e.g. through consuming the low-entropy energy of a battery and diffusing high-entropy heat).<ref>Carnot, S. (1824/1986). Reflections on the motive power of fire, Manchester University Press, Manchester, ISBN 0-7190-1741-6</ref><ref>Clausius, R. (1850). "Ueber die bewegende Kraft der Wärme und die Gesetze, welche sich daraus für die Wärmelehre selbst ableiten Lassen". Annalen der Physik. 79 (4): 368–97, 500–24. Bibcode:1850AnP...155..500C. doi:10.1002/andp.18501550403. hdl:2027/uc1.$b242250. Translated into English: Clausius, R. (July 1851). "On the Moving Force of Heat, and the Laws regarding the Nature of Heat itself which are deducible therefrom". London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science. 4th. 2 (VIII): 1–21, 102–19. doi:10.1080/14786445108646819. Retrieved June 26, 2012.</ref>

18th-century thinkers had sought to understand the "universal laws of form" to explain the observed forms of living organisms. This idea became associated with Lamarckism and fell into disrepute until the early 20th century, when D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1860–1948) attempted to revive it.<ref name=Ruse>Ruse, Michael (2013). "17. From Organicism to Mechanism-and Halfway Back?". In Henning, Brian G.; Scarfe, Adam (eds.). Beyond Mechanism: Putting Life Back Into Biology. Lexington Books. p. 419. ISBN 978-0-7391-7437-1.</ref>

The psychiatrist and engineer W. Ross Ashby introduced the term "self-organizing" to contemporary science in 1947.<ref name=ashby1947/> It was taken up by the cyberneticians Heinz von Foerster, Gordon Pask, Stafford Beer; and von Foerster organized a conference on "The Principles of Self-Organization" at the University of Illinois' Allerton Park in June, 1960 which led to a series of conferences on Self-Organizing Systems.<ref>Asaro, P. (2007). "Heinz von Foerster and the Bio-Computing Movements of the 1960s" in Albert Müller and Karl H. Müller (eds.) An Unfinished Revolution? Heinz von Foerster and the Biological Computer Laboratory BCL 1958–1976. Vienna, Austria: Edition Echoraum.</ref> Norbert Wiener took up the idea in the second edition of his Cybernetics: or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (1961).

Self-organization was associated^{[by whom?]} with general systems theory in the 1960s, but did not become commonplace in the scientific literature until physicists Hermann Haken et al. and complex systems researchers adopted it in a greater picture from cosmology Erich Jantsch,^{[clarification needed]} chemistry with dissipative system, biology and sociology as autopoiesis to system thinking in the following 1980s (Santa Fe Institute) and 1990s (complex adaptive system), until our days with the disruptive emerging technologies profounded by a rhizomatic network theory.<ref> As an indication of the increasing importance of this concept, when queried with the keyword self-organ*, Dissertation Abstracts finds nothing before 1954, and only four entries before 1970. There were 17 in the years 1971–1980; 126 in 1981–1990; and 593 in 1991–2000. </ref>^{[original research?]}

Around 2008–2009, a concept of guided self-organization started to take shape. This approach aims to regulate self-organization for specific purposes, so that a dynamical system may reach specific attractors or outcomes. The regulation constrains a self-organizing process within a complex system by restricting local interactions between the system components, rather than following an explicit control mechanism or a global design blueprint. The desired outcomes, such as increases in the resultant internal structure and/or functionality, are achieved by combining task-independent global objectives with task-dependent constraints on local interactions.<ref>Phys.org, Self-organizing robots: Robotic construction crew needs no foreman (w/ video), February 13, 2014.</ref><ref>Science Daily, Robotic systems: How sensorimotor intelligence may develop... self-organized behaviors , October 27, 2015.</ref>

By field

Physics

The many self-organizing phenomena in physics include phase transitions and spontaneous symmetry breaking such as spontaneous magnetization and crystal growth in classical physics, and the laser,<ref>Zeiger, H. J. and Kelley, P. L. (1991) "Lasers", pp. 614–19 in The Encyclopedia of Physics, Second Edition, edited by Lerner, R. and Trigg, G., VCH Publishers.</ref> superconductivity and Bose–Einstein condensation in quantum physics. Self-organization is found in self-organized criticality in dynamical systems, in tribology, in spin foam systems, and in loop quantum gravity,<ref>Ansari M. H. (2004) Self-organized theory in quantum gravity. arxiv.org</ref> in plasma,<ref> Lozeanu, Erzilia; Popescu, Virginia; Sanduloviciu, Mircea (February 2002). "Spatial and spatiotemporal patterns formed after self-organization in plasma". IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science. 30 (1). </ref> in river basins and deltas, in dendritic solidification (snow flakes), in capillary imbibition<ref name="YasugaIseri2021">Yasuga, Hiroki; Iseri, Emre; Wei, Xi; Kaya, Kerem; Di Dio, Giacomo; Osaki, Toshihisa; Kamiya, Koki; Nikolakopoulou, Polyxeni; Buchmann, Sebastian; Sundin, Johan; Bagheri, Shervin; Takeuchi, Shoji; Herland, Anna; Miki, Norihisa; van der Wijngaart, Wouter (2021). "Fluid interfacial energy drives the emergence of three-dimensional periodic structures in micropillar scaffolds". Nature Physics. 17 (7): 794–800. Bibcode:2021NatPh..17..794Y. doi:10.1038/s41567-021-01204-4. ISSN 1745-2473. S2CID 233702358.</ref> and in turbulent structure.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

Chemistry

Self-organization in chemistry includes drying-induced self-assembly,<ref>Carroll, GT; Jongejan, MGM; Pijper, D; Feringa, BL (2010). "Spontaneous generation and patterning of chiral polymeric surface toroids" (PDF). Chemical Science. 1 (4): 469–472. doi:10.1039/C0SC00159G. S2CID 96957407.</ref> molecular self-assembly,<ref>Lehn, J.-M. (1988). "Perspectives in Supramolecular Chemistry-From Molecular Recognition towards Molecular Information Processing and Self-Organization". Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 27 (11): 89–121. doi:10.1002/anie.198800891.</ref> reaction–diffusion systems and oscillating reactions,<ref>Bray, William C. (1921). "A periodic reaction in homogeneous solution and its relation to catalysis". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 43 (6): 1262–67. doi:10.1021/ja01439a007.</ref> autocatalytic networks, liquid crystals,<ref>Rego, J.A.; Harvey, Jamie A.A.; MacKinnon, Andrew L.; Gatdula, Elysse (January 2010). "Asymmetric synthesis of a highly soluble 'trimeric' analogue of the chiral nematic liquid crystal twist agent Merck S1011" (PDF). Liquid Crystals. 37 (1): 37–43. doi:10.1080/02678290903359291. S2CID 95102727. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 8, 2012.</ref> grid complexes, colloidal crystals, self-assembled monolayers,<ref>Love; et al. (2005). "Self-Assembled Monolayers of Thiolates on Metals as a Form of Nanotechnology". Chem. Rev. 105 (4): 1103–70. doi:10.1021/cr0300789. PMID 15826011.</ref><ref name="Raval2003">Barlow, S.M.; Raval R.. (2003). "Complex organic molecules at metal surfaces: bonding, organisation and chirality". Surface Science Reports. 50 (6–8): 201–341. Bibcode:2003SurSR..50..201B. doi:10.1016/S0167-5729(03)00015-3.</ref> micelles, microphase separation of block copolymers, and Langmuir–Blodgett films.<ref>Ritu, Harneet (2016). "Large Area Fabrication of Semiconducting Phosphorene by Langmuir-Blodgett Assembly". Sci. Rep. 6: 34095. arXiv:1605.00875. Bibcode:2016NatSR...634095K. doi:10.1038/srep34095. PMC 5037434. PMID 27671093.</ref>

Biology

Self-organization in biology<ref>Camazine, Deneubourg, Franks, Sneyd, Theraulaz, Bonabeau, Self-Organization in Biological Systems, Princeton University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-691-11624-5</ref> can be observed in spontaneous folding of proteins and other biomacromolecules, self-assembly of lipid bilayer membranes, pattern formation and morphogenesis in developmental biology, the coordination of human movement, eusocial behaviour in insects (bees, ants, termites)<ref>Bonabeau, Eric; et al. (May 1997). "Self-organization in social insects" (PDF). Trends in Ecology & Evolution. 12 (5): 188–93. doi:10.1016/S0169-5347(97)01048-3. PMID 21238030.</ref> and mammals, and flocking behaviour in birds and fish.<ref>Couzin, Iain D.; Krause, Jens (2003). "Self-Organization and Collective Behavior in Vertebrates" (PDF). Advances in the Study of Behavior. 32: 1–75. doi:10.1016/S0065-3454(03)01001-5. ISBN 978-0-12-004532-7. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 20, 2016.</ref>

The mathematical biologist Stuart Kauffman and other structuralists have suggested that self-organization may play roles alongside natural selection in three areas of evolutionary biology, namely population dynamics, molecular evolution, and morphogenesis. However, this does not take into account the essential role of energy in driving biochemical reactions in cells. The systems of reactions in any cell are self-catalyzing, but not simply self-organizing, as they are thermodynamically open systems relying on a continuous input of energy.<ref>Fox, Ronald F. (December 1993). "Review of Stuart Kauffman, The Origins of Order: Self-Organization and Selection in Evolution". Biophys. J. 65 (6): 2698–99. Bibcode:1993BpJ....65.2698F. doi:10.1016/s0006-3495(93)81321-3. PMC 1226010.</ref><ref>Goodwin, Brian (2009). "Beyond the Darwinian Paradigm: Understanding Biological Forms". In Ruse, Michael; Travis, Joseph (eds.). Evolution: The First Four Billion Years. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.</ref> Self-organization is not an alternative to natural selection, but it constrains what evolution can do and provides mechanisms such as the self-assembly of membranes which evolution then exploits.<ref>Johnson, Brian R.; Lam, Sheung Kwam (2010). "Self-organization, Natural Selection, and Evolution: Cellular Hardware and Genetic Software". BioScience. 60 (11): 879–85. doi:10.1525/bio.2010.60.11.4. S2CID 10903076.</ref>

The evolution of order in living systems and the generation of order in certain non-living systems was proposed to obey a common fundamental principal called “the Darwinian dynamic”<ref>Bernstein H, Byerly HC, Hopf FA, Michod RA, Vemulapalli GK. (1983) The Darwinian Dynamic. Quarterly Review of Biology 58, 185-207. JSTOR 2828805</ref> that was formulated by first considering how microscopic order is generated in simple non-biological systems that are far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Consideration was then extended to short, replicating RNA molecules assumed to be similar to the earliest forms of life in the RNA world. It was shown that the underlying order-generating processes of self-organization in the non-biological systems and in replicating RNA are basically similar.

Cosmology

In his 1995 conference paper "Cosmology as a problem in critical phenomena" Lee Smolin said that several cosmological objects or phenomena, such as spiral galaxies, galaxy formation processes in general, early structure formation, quantum gravity and the large scale structure of the universe might be the result of or have involved certain degree of self-organization.<ref>Smollin, Lee (1995). "Cosmology as a problem in critical phenomena". In Ramón López-Peña; Henri Waelbroeck; Riccardo Capovilla; Ricardo García-Pelayo; Federico Zertuche (eds.). Complex Systems and Binary Networks: Guanajuato Lectures Held at Guanajuato, México 16–22 January 1995. Vol. 461–461. arXiv:gr-qc/9505022. doi:10.1007/BFb0103573.</ref> He argues that self-organized systems are often critical systems, with structure spreading out in space and time over every available scale, as shown for example by Per Bak and his collaborators. Therefore, because the distribution of matter in the universe is more or less scale invariant over many orders of magnitude, ideas and strategies developed in the study of self-organized systems could be helpful in tackling certain unsolved problems in cosmology and astrophysics.

Computer science

Phenomena from mathematics and computer science such as cellular automata, random graphs, and some instances of evolutionary computation and artificial life exhibit features of self-organization. In swarm robotics, self-organization is used to produce emergent behavior. In particular the theory of random graphs has been used as a justification for self-organization as a general principle of complex systems. In the field of multi-agent systems, understanding how to engineer systems that are capable of presenting self-organized behavior is an active research area.<ref>Serugendo, Giovanna Di Marzo; et al. (June 2005). "Self-organization in multi-agent systems". Knowledge Engineering Review. 20 (2): 165–89. doi:10.1017/S0269888905000494. S2CID 41179835.</ref> Optimization algorithms can be considered self-organizing because they aim to find the optimal solution to a problem. If the solution is considered as a state of the iterative system, the optimal solution is the selected, converged structure of the system.<ref>Yang, X. S.; Deb, S.; Loomes, M.; Karamanoglu, M. (2013). "A framework for self-tuning optimization algorithm". Neural Computing and Applications. 23 (7–8): 2051–57. arXiv:1312.5667. Bibcode:2013arXiv1312.5667Y. doi:10.1007/s00521-013-1498-4. S2CID 1937763.</ref><ref>X. S. Yang (2014) Nature-Inspired Optimization Algorithms, Elsevier.</ref> Self-organizing networks include small-world networks<ref>Watts, Duncan J.; Strogatz, Steven H. (June 1998). "Collective dynamics of 'small-world' networks". Nature. 393 (6684): 440–42. Bibcode:1998Natur.393..440W. doi:10.1038/30918. PMID 9623998. S2CID 4429113.</ref> self-stabilization<ref>Dolev, Shlomi; Tzachar, Nir (2009). "Empire of colonies: Self-stabilizing and self-organizing distributed algorithm". Theoretical Computer Science. 410 (6–7): 514–532. doi:10.1016/j.tcs.2008.10.006.</ref> and scale-free networks. These emerge from bottom-up interactions, unlike top-down hierarchical networks within organizations, which are not self-organizing.<ref name="Clauset">Clauset, Aaron; Cosma Rohilla Shalizi; M. E. J Newman (2009). "Power-law distributions in empirical data". SIAM Review. 51 (4): 661–703. arXiv:0706.1062. Bibcode:2009SIAMR..51..661C. doi:10.1137/070710111. S2CID 9155618.</ref> Cloud computing systems have been argued to be inherently self-organising,<ref>Zhang, Q., Cheng, L., and Boutaba, R. (2010). "Cloud computing: state-of-the-art and research challenges". Journal of Internet Services and Applications. 1 (1): 7–18. doi:10.1007/s13174-010-0007-6. hdl:20.500.12749/3552.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)</ref> but while they have some autonomy, they are not self-managing as they do not have the goal of reducing their own complexity.<ref>Marinescu, D. C.; Paya, A.; Morrison, J. P.; Healy, P. (2013). "An auction-driven self-organising cloud delivery model". arXiv:1312.2998 [cs.DC].</ref><ref>Lynn; et al. (2016). "CLOUDLIGHTNING: A Framework for a Self-organising and Self-managing Heterogeneous Cloud". Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Cloud Computing and Services Science. pp. 333–338. doi:10.5220/0005921503330338. ISBN 978-989-758-182-3.</ref>

Cybernetics

Norbert Wiener regarded the automatic serial identification of a black box and its subsequent reproduction as self-organization in cybernetics.<ref>Wiener, Norbert (1962) "The mathematics of self-organising systems". Recent developments in information and decision processes, Macmillan, N. Y. and Chapter X in Cybernetics, or control and communication in the animal and the machine, The MIT Press.</ref> The importance of phase locking or the "attraction of frequencies", as he called it, is discussed in the 2nd edition of his Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine.<ref>Cybernetics, or control and communication in the animal and the machine, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts and Wiley, NY, 1948. 2nd Edition 1962 "Chapter X "Brain Waves and Self-Organizing Systems" pp. 201–02.</ref> K. Eric Drexler sees self-replication as a key step in nano and universal assembly. By contrast, the four concurrently connected galvanometers of W. Ross Ashby's Homeostat hunt, when perturbed, to converge on one of many possible stable states.<ref>Ashby, William Ross (1952) Design for a Brain, Chapter 5 Chapman & Hall</ref> Ashby used his state counting measure of variety<ref>Ashby, William Ross (1956) An Introduction to Cybernetics, Part Two Chapman & Hall</ref> to describe stable states and produced the "Good Regulator"<ref>Conant, R. C.; Ashby, W. R. (1970). "Every good regulator of a system must be a model of that system" (PDF). Int. J. Systems Sci. 1 (2): 89–97. doi:10.1080/00207727008920220.</ref> theorem which requires internal models for self-organized endurance and stability (e.g. Nyquist stability criterion). Warren McCulloch proposed "Redundancy of Potential Command"<ref>Embodiments of Mind MIT Press (1965)"</ref> as characteristic of the organization of the brain and human nervous system and the necessary condition for self-organization. Heinz von Foerster proposed Redundancy, R=1 − H/H_max, where H is entropy.<ref>von Foerster, Heinz; Pask, Gordon (1961). "A Predictive Model for Self-Organizing Systems, Part I". Cybernetica. 3: 258–300.</ref><ref>von Foerster, Heinz; Pask, Gordon (1961). "A Predictive Model for Self-Organizing Systems, Part II". Cybernetica. 4: 20–55.</ref> In essence this states that unused potential communication bandwidth is a measure of self-organization.

In the 1970s Stafford Beer considered self-organization necessary for autonomy in persisting and living systems. He applied his viable system model to management. It consists of five parts: the monitoring of performance of the survival processes (1), their management by recursive application of regulation (2), homeostatic operational control (3) and development (4) which produce maintenance of identity (5) under environmental perturbation. Focus is prioritized by an alerting "algedonic loop" feedback: a sensitivity to both pain and pleasure produced from under-performance or over-performance relative to a standard capability.<ref>"Brain of the Firm" Alan Lane (1972); see also Viable System Model in "Beyond Dispute", and Stafford Beer (1994) "Redundancy of Potential Command" pp. 157–58.</ref>

In the 1990s Gordon Pask argued that von Foerster's H and Hmax were not independent, but interacted via countably infinite recursive concurrent spin processes<ref name=p1996/> which he called concepts. His strict definition of concept "a procedure to bring about a relation"<ref name=p1973/> permitted his theorem "Like concepts repel, unlike concepts attract"<ref>Green, N. (2001). "On Gordon Pask". Kybernetes. 30 (5/6): 673–82. doi:10.1108/03684920110391913.</ref> to state a general spin-based principle of self-organization. His edict, an exclusion principle, "There are No Doppelgangers" means no two concepts can be the same. After sufficient time, all concepts attract and coalesce as pink noise. The theory applies to all organizationally closed or homeostatic processes that produce enduring and coherent products which evolve, learn and adapt.<ref>Pask, Gordon (1993) Interactions of Actors (IA), Theory and Some Applications.</ref><ref name="p1996">Pask, Gordon (1996). "Heinz von Foerster's Self-Organisation, the Progenitor of Conversation and Interaction Theories" (PDF). Systems Research. 13 (3): 349–62. doi:10.1002/(sici)1099-1735(199609)13:3<349::aid-sres103>3.3.co;2-7.</ref>

Sociology

The self-organizing behaviour of social animals and the self-organization of simple mathematical structures both suggest that self-organization should be expected in human society. Tell-tale signs of self-organization are usually statistical properties shared with self-organizing physical systems. Examples such as critical mass, herd behaviour, groupthink and others, abound in sociology, economics, behavioral finance and anthropology.<ref>Interactive models for self organization and biological systems Center for Models of Life, Niels Bohr Institute, Denmark</ref> Spontaneous order can be influenced by arousal.<ref>Smith, Thomas S.; Stevens, Gregory T. (1996). "Emergence, Self-Organization, and Social Interaction: Arousal-Dependent Structure in Social Systems". Sociological Theory. 14 (2): 131–153. doi:10.2307/201903. JSTOR 201903 – via JSTOR.</ref>

In social theory, the concept of self-referentiality has been introduced as a sociological application of self-organization theory by Niklas Luhmann (1984). For Luhmann the elements of a social system are self-producing communications, i.e. a communication produces further communications and hence a social system can reproduce itself as long as there is dynamic communication. For Luhmann, human beings are sensors in the environment of the system. Luhmann developed an evolutionary theory of society and its subsystems, using functional analyses and systems theory.<ref>Luhmann, Niklas (1995) Social Systems. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-2625-6</ref>

Economics

The market economy is sometimes said to be self-organizing. Paul Krugman has written on the role that market self-organization plays in the business cycle in his book The Self Organizing Economy.<ref>Krugman, P. (1995) The Self Organizing Economy. Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 1-55786-699-6</ref> Friedrich Hayek coined the term catallaxy<ref>Hayek, F. (1976) Law, Legislation and Liberty, Volume 2: The Mirage of Social Justice. University of Chicago Press.</ref> to describe a "self-organizing system of voluntary co-operation", in regards to the spontaneous order of the free market economy. Neo-classical economists hold that imposing central planning usually makes the self-organized economic system less efficient. On the other end of the spectrum, economists consider that market failures are so significant that self-organization produces bad results and that the state should direct production and pricing. Most economists adopt an intermediate position and recommend a mixture of market economy and command economy characteristics (sometimes called a mixed economy). When applied to economics, the concept of self-organization can quickly become ideologically imbued.<ref name="Biel2009">Biel, R.; Mu-Jeong Kho (November 2009). "The Issue of Energy within a Dialectical Approach to the Regulationist Problematique" (PDF). Recherches & Régulation Working Papers, RR Série ID 2009-1. Association Recherche & Régulation: 1–21. Retrieved November 9, 2013.</ref><ref>Marshall, A. (2002) The Unity of Nature, Chapter 5. Imperial College Press. ISBN 1-86094-330-6</ref>

Learning

Enabling others to "learn how to learn"<ref>Rogers.C. (1969). Freedom to Learn. Merrill</ref> is often taken to mean instructing them<ref>Feynman, R. P. (1987) Elementary Particles and the Laws of Physics. The Dyrac 1997 Memorial Lecture. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-65862-1</ref> how to submit to being taught. Self-organised learning (SOL)<ref>Thomas L.F. & Augstein E.S. (1985) Self-Organised Learning: Foundations of a conversational science for psychology. Routledge (1st Ed.)</ref><ref>Thomas L.F. & Augstein E.S. (1994) Self-Organised Learning: Foundations of a conversational science for psychology. Routledge (2nd Ed.)</ref><ref>Thomas L.F. & Augstein E.S. (2013) Learning: Foundations of a conversational science for psychology. Routledge (Psy. Revivals)</ref> denies that "the expert knows best" or that there is ever "the one best method",<ref>Harri-Augstein E. S. and Thomas L. F. (1991) Learning Conversations: The S-O-L way to personal and organizational growth. Routledge (1st Ed.)</ref><ref>Harri-Augstein E. S. and Thomas L. F. (2013) Learning Conversations: The S-O-L way to personal and organizational growth. Routledge (2nd Ed.)</ref><ref>Harri-Augstein E. S. and Thomas L. F. (2013)Learning Conversations: The S-O-L way to personal and organizational growth. BookBaby (eBook)</ref> insisting instead on "the construction of personally significant, relevant and viable meaning"<ref>Illich. I. (1971) A Celebration of Awareness. Penguin Books.</ref> to be tested experientially by the learner.<ref>Harri-Augstein E. S. (2000) The University of Learning in transformation</ref> This may be collaborative, and more rewarding personally.<ref>Schumacher, E. F. (1997) This I Believe and Other Essays (Resurgence Book). ISBN 1-870098-66-8</ref><ref>Revans R. W. (1982) The Origins and Growth of Action Learning Chartwell-Bratt, Bromley</ref> It is seen as a lifelong process, not limited to specific learning environments (home, school, university) or under the control of authorities such as parents and professors.<ref>Thomas L.F. and Harri-Augstein S. (1993) "On Becoming a Learning Organisation" in Report of a 7 year Action Research Project with the Royal Mail Business. CSHL Monograph</ref> It needs to be tested, and intermittently revised, through the personal experience of the learner.<ref>Rogers C.R. (1971) On Becoming a Person. Constable, London</ref> It need not be restricted by either consciousness or language.<ref>Prigogyne I. & Sengers I. (1985) Order out of Chaos Flamingo Paperbacks. London</ref> Fritjof Capra argued that it is poorly recognised within psychology and education.<ref>Capra F (1989) Uncommon Wisdom Flamingo Paperbacks. London</ref> It may be related to cybernetics as it involves a negative feedback control loop,<ref name=p1973>Pask, G. (1973). Conversation, Cognition and Learning. A Cybernetic Theory and Methodology. Elsevier</ref> or to systems theory.<ref>Bohm D. (1994) Thought as a System. Routledge.</ref> It can be conducted as a learning conversation or dialogue between learners or within one person.<ref>Maslow, A. H. (1964). Religions, values, and peak-experiences, Columbus: Ohio State University Press.</ref><ref>Conversational Science Thomas L.F. and Harri-Augstein E.S. (1985)</ref>

Transportation

The self-organizing behavior of drivers in traffic flow determines almost all the spatiotemporal behavior of traffic, such as traffic breakdown at a highway bottleneck, highway capacity, and the emergence of moving traffic jams. These self-organizing effects are explained by Boris Kerner's three-phase traffic theory.<ref>Kerner, Boris S. (1998). "Experimental Features of Self-Organization in Traffic Flow". Physical Review Letters. 81 (17): 3797–3800. Bibcode:1998PhRvL..81.3797K. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.81.3797.</ref>

Linguistics

Order appears spontaneously in the evolution of language as individual and population behaviour interacts with biological evolution.<ref>De Boer, Bart (2011). Gibson, Kathleen R.; Tallerman, Maggie (eds.). Self-organization and language evolution. Oxford. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)</ref>

Research

Self-organized funding allocation (SOFA) is a method of distributing funding for scientific research. In this system, each researcher is allocated an equal amount of funding, and is required to anonymously allocate a fraction of their funds to the research of others. Proponents of SOFA argue that it would result in similar distribution of funding as the present grant system, but with less overhead.<ref>Bollen, Johan (August 8, 2018). "Who would you share your funding with?". Nature. 560 (7717): 143. Bibcode:2018Natur.560..143B. doi:10.1038/d41586-018-05887-3. PMID 30089925.</ref> In 2016, a test pilot of SOFA began in the Netherlands.<ref>Coelho, Andre (May 16, 2017). "Netherlands: A radical new way do fund science | BIEN". Retrieved June 2, 2019.</ref>

Criticism

Heinz Pagels, in a 1985 review of Ilya Prigogine and Isabelle Stengers's book Order Out of Chaos in Physics Today, appeals to authority:<ref>Pagels, H. R. (January 1, 1985). "Is the irreversibility we see a fundamental property of nature?" (PDF). Physics Today. 38 (1): 97–99. Bibcode:1985PhT....38a..97P. doi:10.1063/1.2813716.</ref>

Most scientists would agree with the critical view expressed in Problems of Biological Physics (Springer Verlag, 1981) by the biophysicist L. A. Blumenfeld, when he wrote: "The meaningful macroscopic ordering of biological structure does not arise due to the increase of certain parameters or a system above their critical values. These structures are built according to program-like complicated architectural structures, the meaningful information created during many billions of years of chemical and biological evolution being used." Life is a consequence of microscopic, not macroscopic, organization.

Of course, Blumenfeld does not answer the further question of how those program-like structures emerge in the first place. His explanation leads directly to infinite regress.

In short, they [Prigogine and Stengers] maintain that time irreversibility is not derived from a time-independent microworld, but is itself fundamental. The virtue of their idea is that it resolves what they perceive as a "clash of doctrines" about the nature of time in physics. Most physicists would agree that there is neither empirical evidence to support their view, nor is there a mathematical necessity for it. There is no "clash of doctrines." Only Prigogine and a few colleagues hold to these speculations which, in spite of their efforts, continue to live in the twilight zone of scientific credibility.

In theology, Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) in his Summa Theologica assumes a teleological created universe in rejecting the idea that something can be a self-sufficient cause of its own organization:<ref>Article 3. Whether God exists? newadvent.org</ref>

Since nature works for a determinate end under the direction of a higher agent, whatever is done by nature must needs be traced back to God, as to its first cause. So also whatever is done voluntarily must also be traced back to some higher cause other than human reason or will, since these can change or fail; for all things that are changeable and capable of defect must be traced back to an immovable and self-necessary first principle, as was shown in the body of the Article.

Notes

References

External links

Template:Scholarpedia
Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen
PDF file on self-organized common law with references
An entry on self-organization at the Principia Cybernetica site
The Science of Self-organization and Adaptivity, a review paper by Francis Heylighen
The Self-Organizing Systems (SOS) FAQ by Chris Lucas, from the USENET newsgroup comp.theory.self-org.sys
David Griffeath, Primordial Soup Kitchen (graphics, papers)
nlin.AO, nonlinear preprint archive, (electronic preprints in adaptation and self-organizing systems)
Structure and Dynamics of Organic Nanostructures Archived April 21, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
Metal organic coordination networks of oligopyridines and Cu on graphite Archived June 11, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
Selforganization in complex networks The Complex Systems Lab, Barcelona
Computational Mechanics Group at the Santa Fe Institute
"Organisation must grow" (1939) W. Ross Ashby journal p. 759, from The W. Ross Ashby Digital Archive
Cosma Shalizi's notebook on self-organization from 2003-06-20, used under the GFDL with permission from author.
Connectivism:SelfOrganization
UCLA Human Complex Systems Program
"Interactions of Actors (IA), Theory and Some Applications" 1993 Gordon Pask's theory of learning, evolution and self-organization (in draft).
The Cybernetics Society
Scott Camazine's webpage on self-organization in biological systems
Mikhail Prokopenko's page on Information-driven Self-organisation (IDSO)
Lakeside Labs Self-Organizing Networked Systems A platform for science and technology, Klagenfurt, Austria.
Watch 32 discordant metronomes synch up all by themselves theatlantic.com

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v t e Patterns in nature
Patterns	Crack Dune Foam Meander Parastichy Phyllotaxis Soap bubble Symmetry in crystals Quasicrystals in flowers in biology Tessellation Vortex street Wave Widmanstätten pattern
Causes	Pattern formation Biology Natural selection Camouflage Mimicry Sexual selection Mathematics Chaos theory Fractal Logarithmic spiral Physics Crystal Fluid dynamics Plateau's laws Self-organization
People	Plato Pythagoras Empedocles Fibonacci Liber Abaci Adolf Zeising Ernst Haeckel Joseph Plateau Wilson Bentley D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson On Growth and Form Alan Turing The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis Aristid Lindenmayer Benoît Mandelbrot How Long Is the Coast of Britain? Statistical Self-Similarity and Fractional Dimension
Related	Pattern recognition Emergence Mathematics and art

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