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From Autocatalysis to Market Relations: A Systems Approach to the Material Flows Needed by Living Systems
Author(s) -
Nechansky Helmut
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
systems research and behavioral science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1099-1743
pISSN - 1092-7026
DOI - 10.1002/sres.2389
Subject(s) - controller (irrigation) , living systems , production (economics) , computer science , multistability , control (management) , economics , microeconomics , artificial intelligence , biology , nonlinear system , physics , quantum mechanics , agronomy
The paper analyses how the control of material flows needed by living systems determines evolutionary patterns. A simplification of Miller's living systems theory, distinguishing only three functional units, (i) production systems, (ii) storage, and (iii) controller structures, is used to investigate the importance of these units on various evolutionary stages. In the internal evolution of biological systems, storage is crucial to control the availability of intermediate products of autocatalytic cycles. This is the base for continuous production and maintenance of controller structures (brains). In the external, technical evolution storage enables building external production systems and controller structures (like computers). In the dyadic coevolution of living systems, control of material flows and/or storage enable power positions in interaction patterns ranging from competition for scarce resources, via market relations, to egalitarian cooperation. Such power positions open access to different markets and exclusive evolutionary options. Economic theory widely ignores that. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.