The main purpose of systems theory is to explain how nonlinear, complex systems behave. Specifically, it explains the behaviors and determines the characteristics of living systems. Systems theory was developed on the basis of holistic nonlinear perception, according to the physicist Capra:
“According to the systems view, the essential properties of an organism or living system are properties of the whole, which none of the parts have. They arise from the interactions and relationships among the parts. These properties are destroyed when the system is dissected, either physically or theoretically, into isolated elements. Although we can discern individual parts in any system, these parts are not isolated, and the nature of the whole is always different from the mere sum of its parts. The emergence of systems thinking was a profound revolution in the history of Western scientific thought. The belief that in every complex system the behavior of the whole can be understood entirely from the properties of its parts is central to the Cartesian 01paradigm. This was Descartes’ celebrated method of analytic thinking, which has been an essential characteristic of modern scientific thought. In the analytic or reductionist approach, the parts themselves cannot be analyzed any further, except by reducing them to still smaller parts. Indeed, Western science has been progressing in that way, and at each step there has been a level of fundamental constituents that could not be analyzed any further.
The great shock of twentieth-century science has been that systems cannot be understood by analysis. The properties of the parts are not intrinsic properties, but can be understood only within the context of the larger whole. Thus the relationship between the parts and the whole has been reversed. In the systems approach, the properties of the parts can be understood only from the organization of the whole. Accordingly, systems’ thinking concentrates not on basic building blocks, but on basic principles of organization. Systems thinking is “contextual,” which is the opposite of analytical thinking. Analysis means taking something apart in order to understand it; systems thinking means putting it into the context of a larger whole.” – The Web of Life (1997)
The perception shift from linear to nonlinear is a shift from the parts to the whole, from objects to relationship, from quantity to quality, and from substance to patterns. There are three key criteria that summarize the main characteristics of living systems: pattern of organization, structure, and process. As explained by Capra:
The pattern of organization of any system, living or nonliving, is the configuration of relationships among the system’s components that determines the system’s essential characteristics. In other words, certain relationships must be present for something to be recognized as say a chair, a bicycle, or a tree. That configuration of relationships that gives a system its essential characteristics is what we mean by its pattern of organization.
The structure of a system is the physical embodiment of its pattern of organization. Whereas the description of the pattern of organization involves an abstract mapping of relationships, the description of the structure involves describing the system’s actual physical components; their shapes, chemical compositions, and so forth. In a living system by contrast, the components change continually. There is a ceaseless flux of matter through a living organism. Each cell continually synthesizes and dissolves structures and eliminates waste products. Tissues and organs replace their cells in continual cycles. There is growth, development, and evolution. Thus from the very beginning of biology, the understanding of living structure has been inseparable from the understanding of metabolic and developmental processes. This striking property of living systems suggests process as a third criterion for a comprehensive description of the nature of life. The process of life is the activity involved in the continual embodiment of the system’s pattern of organization. Thus the process criterion is the link between pattern and structure.
Let us now explore these three criteria in greater depth, so that we can better understand the behavior of living systems. Two works by Capra are especially helpful in describing these concepts. In the following paragraphs, I’ll use excerpts from The Web of Life (1997) and The Hidden Connections: A Science for Sustainable Living (2002), combined with my understanding of their application.
Pattern of Organization
The pattern of organization of a living system is always a network pattern. This network pattern, in which the function of each component is to help produce and transform other components while maintaining the overall circularity of the network, is the basic “organization of the living.” Such a systemic understanding is based on the assumption that there is a fundamental unity to life; that different living systems exhibit similar patterns of organization. This assumption is supported by the observation that evolution has proceeded for billions of years by using the same patterns again and again. As life evolves, these patterns tend to become more and more elaborate, but they are always variations on the same basic themes. Wherever we encounter living systems, we observe that their components are arranged in network fashion. Whenever we look at life, we look at networks.
This recognition came into science in the 1920’s, when ecologists began to study food webs. Soon after that, recognizing the network as the general pattern of life, systems thinkers extended network models to all systems levels. Cybernetics in particular tried to understand the brain as a neural network, and developed special mathematical techniques to analyze its patterns. The structure of the human brain is enormously complex. It contains about 10 billion nerve cells (neurons), which are interlinked in a vast network through 1,000 billion junctions (synapses). The whole brain can be divided into subsections, or sub networks, which communicate with each other in network fashion. This results in intricate patterns of intertwined webs; networks nesting within larger networks.
The first and most obvious property of any network is its non-linearity; it goes in all directions. Thus the relationships in a network pattern are nonlinear relationships. In particular, an influence or message may travel along a cyclical path, which may become a feedback loop. The concept of feedback is intimately connected with the network pattern.
Because networks of communication may generate feedback loops, they may acquire the ability to regulate themselves. For example, a community that maintains an active network of communication will learn from its mistakes because the consequences of a mistake will spread through the network and return to the source along feedback loops. Thus the community can correct its mistakes, regulate itself, and organize itself. Indeed, self-organization has emerged as perhaps the central concept in the systems view of life; and like the concepts of feedback and self-regulation, it is linked closely to networks. The pattern of life, we might say, is a network pattern capable of self-organization. This is a simple definition, yet it is based on recent discoveries at the very forefront of science.
The view of living systems as networks provides a novel perspective on the so-called hierarchies of nature. Since living systems at all levels are networks, we must visualize the web of life as living systems (networks) interacting in network fashion with other systems (networks). The fact that the basic pattern of life is a network pattern means that the relationships among the members of an ecological community are nonlinear, involving multiple feedback loops. Linear chains of cause and effect exist very rarely in ecosystems. Thus a disturbance will not be limited to a single effect, but is likely to spread out in ever-widening patterns. It may even be amplified by interdependent feedback loops, which may completely obscure the original source of the disturbance.
Structure
The structures of living systems are self-organizing and dissipative structures. Dissipative structures are open systems that operate far from equilibrium. A constant flow of energy and matter through the system is necessary for self-organization to take place. The striking emergence of new structures and new forms of behavior which is the hallmark of self-organization occurs only when the system is far from equilibrium. Thus natural selection may favor and sustain living systems at the edge of chaos because these may be the best able to coordinate complex and flexible behavior, best able to adapt and evolve.
The spontaneous emergence of new order takes place at critical points of instability that arise from fluctuations in the environment, amplified by feedback loops. Emergence results in the creation of novelty that is often qualitatively different from the phenomena out of which it emerged. Recognizing a dissipative emerging structure as a fundamental part of living systems is a shift of perception from stability to instability, from order to disorder, from equilibrium to non-equilibrium, from linear to non-linear, from being to becoming.
Because human-made design structures are based on orderly, stable, linear perception, accepting the existence of dynamic emergent structures requires a shift in perception. The key characteristics of dissipative structures are non-equilibrium, nonlinearity, instability, indeterminacy, sensitivity to small change in the environment, the relevance of previous history at critical points of choice, and uncertainty and unpredictability of the future.
Process
Living systems are cognitive systems, and the interactions of a living system with its environment are cognitive interactions. The process of living itself is a process of cognition; to live is to know. Awareness of the environment is a property of cognition at all levels of life. The organizing activity of living systems at all levels of life is mental activity. We are beginning to recognize the creative unfolding of life in forms of ever-increasing diversity and complexity as an inherent characteristic of all living systems. The central focus is on creativity; on life’s constant reaching out into novelty. Creativity is a key property of all living systems.
One of the most astonishing achievements of human beings occurred in the second half of the last century in systems theory; it was the recognition of Earth as a living system. Called Gaia theory, it posited that life is a property of planets rather than of individual organisms. As atmospheric chemist James Lovelock said, “Consider Gaia theory as an alternative to the conventional wisdom that sees the Earth as a dead planet made of inanimate rocks, ocean, and atmosphere, and merely inhabited by life. Consider it as a real system, comprising all of life and its entire environment tightly coupled so as to form a self-regulating entity.” Throughout the living world we find living systems nesting within other living systems. Therefore, Earth as a living system is a cognitive system with the inherent tendency to create novelty.
Living systems are capable of organizing themselves in nonlinear network patterns that exhibit self-regulated, self-organized, self-generated, and holistic behaviors. Living systems, by performing far from equilibrium, organize themselves in a dissipative and emergent structure, flexible enough to endure chaos and instability. When they reach their critical point of instability, a new order emerges spontaneously, with all elements synchronized in full cooperation. The new order elevates the functionality and capability of the entire network to a level that is greater than the sum of its components, which is an indication of cognitive process.