Self-organising Systems
Written
and updated since 1992. Updated
Oct. 2014.
People Preoccupied
with Protecting their assumed Prerogatives (PPPP) at the top of
hierarchies use Manipulative Knowing for
Predicting and Control of their hierarchical organisational systems. The Power
of PPPP is zero sum. If someone gets more power, others get less (refer authentic authority).
This
paper explores a very different phenomenon, namely, Self-organising Systems
(SoS). Often, PPPP type people cannot see SoS when it is right in front of
their eyes. If they do see it they will attempt to subvert it or impose their
control on it.
SoS
regularly occur in both the natural life world and the social life world. The
paper provides some examples of SoS from both worlds, as well as outlining some
of the ways one may identify and engage with SoS.
In
SoS in the social life world people tend to use a Relational Knowing
that has nothing to do with wanting to control through predicting. Coherence
and coherent order emerge naturally in the relating of the parties in relation.
It
has been long observed in natural systems that the dynamic nature of a
system may have a tendency to increase inherent and coherent order in a system.
Camerzine writes:
‘Self-organising
systems are physical and biological systems in which pattern and structure at
the global level arise solely from interactions among lower-level components of
the system. The rules specifying interactions among the system’s components are
executed using only local information, without reference to the global pattern
(2011).’
The
paper includes an example of an SoS within a workshop process at a Conference
Festival called ConFest.
Aspects of Self-organising Systems in
the Natural Life World
o Aspects
in nature tend to coalesce naturally into systems
o It
is possible to identify what could be termed ‘organising’ within natural
systems
o Natural
systems typically have structure and process that are ordered, with system
parts fitting together, and as such, possessing the quality of ‘being
organised’. An example - river systems draining huge areas of a continent – the
survival of the fitting
o Huge
natural systems are typically extremely dynamic with constant changes, while
still maintaining a coherent over-all order – for example, dynamic change in
river systems - rivers changing course during floods, and dynamic ever changing
river deltas extend into the ocean
o ‘Organising’
emerges from happenings to myriads of system properties that are cohering
together in increasing the likelihood of other happenings in naturally occurring
contexts; emergent properties, patterns, and repeated patterns in nature,
naturally combining aspects and symbiosis
o One
example of an oft-repeated natural system pattern is gravity and land
topography based water flow occurring on the oft repeated three primary
landforms: main ridge, primary ridge and primary valley
o There
is an abundance of ‘stacked’ possibilities in the billions of droplets of water
randomly falling on the constraints of the three primary landforms
o Random
falling drops of rain ‘self-organise’ in response to gravity – random events
within the constraints of local context - either this side or that side of the
main ridge – landing on pervious or non-pervious rock, or flowing over
compacted or non-compacted soil, either soaking into the earth and seeping to
lower levels to emerge as springs, or running overland to runoff into
creeklets, creeks, streams and river systems, and then into river mouths,
estuaries or deltas that tend to start repeating the pattern out into the
ocean. And through all of this some
water is evaporating off into the air again – a few simple salient aspects
influencing complex systems and their outcomes
The
Flow of rivers into the sea. This
pattern is repeated in trees - the top-end branches.
Bottom-end
roots - Fluid distribution systems
The
flow of rivers is mirrored in the flow of trillions of life forms in a speck of
life colloid in thriving Livyon Soil.
Refer
the Life Colloid YouTube.
o SoS typically
entail many differentiated aspects; pattern, structure, process, and
metaprocess (the process of the process)
o These
aspects, structures and process are typically simultaneously interrelated, interconnected, and interdependent;
this quality may be termed ‘connexity’
o One
requires what may be termed ‘connexity perception’ to sense connexity in
natural systems – connexity perception is a capacity that few seem to have,
though one may evolve competence in connexity perceiving
o With
connexity perception one may notice, attend to, and realise the significance of
a few simple salient aspects influencing complex natural SoS and their outcomes
(Berlow, 2010)
SoS Occurring Naturally in People Systems
SoS
occur naturally in people systems and may be fostered and enabled (supported to
be more able as SoS).
Social
SoS have many of the aspects of SoS that occur in nature. It follows that one may
use biomimicry (mimicking nature) in understanding social SoS.
Some
aspects of social SoS:
o SoS
in social interaction are organised - though organised very differently from
top-down imposed organisation - where the privileged few organise and control
the many
o With
SoS, organising aspects distributed
through the total SoS are contributing in sometimes difficult to predict
ways in organising form, structure, process, and emerging outcomes
o Often
these organising aspects have authentic
authority rather than zero-sum authority
o Proponents
of imposed top-down organisation typically are dismissive of SoS - describing
SoS as ‘not organised’, or ‘not organised properly’ - and as a natural
consequence, such proponents typically have little interest in, or knowledge of
SoS
o A
typical aspect of top-down imposed organisation is that it is pre-ordinate -
being organisationally determined in advance - and participants use a manipulative
type knowing so as to endeavour to increase prediction and control. SoS
organising tends to be more emergent, with those involved using relational type knowing for better
fitting to increase emergence and for tapping into and freely utilising the
wisdom and knowing within system members; the formal system may restrict who
can pass information and who can receive information. Recall Camerzine’s
observations mentioned above:
‘Self-organising
systems.....pattern and structure at the global level arise solely from
interactions among lower-level components of the system. The rules specifying
interactions among the system’s components are executed using only local
information, without reference to the global pattern (2011).’
SoS
emerging in hierarchical imposed organisation do not reference the ‘global
pattern’ imposed from above. Actions are guided by the local context. Like in
SoS in nature, things that work tend to be repeated and become organic policy.
SoS may have its own ‘rules’; refer the ASIC example below. Most action is
spontaneously appropriate to the moment following principles as guides to
action.
o Members
of SoS operating within the constraints of top-down organisation:
o tend
to make use of any redundancy in the total organisation
o make
use of any informal organisation, including ‘grapevines’
o engage
covertly in plain view; typically SoS is not noticed by ‘power over’
controllers
o bypass
organisational constraints on communication flow
o makes
use of informal though restricted membership social networking
o have
informal shared understandings as to who receives communications
o Emergence is one way complex self
organising systems, system processes, and patterns arise out of a multiple
relatively simple interactions
o Emergent
acts by folk engaging in SoS may constitute integrated ‘levels’ and ‘matrices’
(weblike networks) in complex SoS systems
- what happens by a few self-starters may be ‘picked up’ and used by the
many in a SoS
o Things
that work may be passed on in networks as rumours and adapted to new contexts
o Some
folk naturally engage with SoS without any particular consciousness of process
Some Examples of SoS in Social Contexts
in Everyday Life
SoS may emerge within traditional top-down
imposed organisational systems. For example, within the Australian Securities
and Investment Commission (ASIC) there spontaneously emerged three sets of informal professional information
sharing networks within ASIC staff, namely among those with police
investigation backgrounds, those with legal backgrounds, and those with Public
Service Administrative backgrounds. There was cooperation outside of formal
channels in information transfer within
these three different networks. People were comfortable with and trusted the
people within their respective networks. However, there was no inter-group informal information transfer. People within these three respective
networks would never share information with people in the other two networks.
These informal professional information sharing networks within ASIC were
totally a self-organising phenomenon and taking place informally outside of the
formal organisation procedures and rules.
To explore another example, even within all
of the road rules, the flow of traffic may shift between a SoS, a rule-based,
or a context-driven organising process depending on traffic volume.
Politicians
talk incessantly about ‘running’ the economy. What actually happens in the economy is the combined result of millions
of individual buying, selling, saving, investing decisions and actions -
actions by millions of people often acting irrationally based upon a whim; the
concerted actions of advertisers, the nebulous ‘consumer confidence’, and
myriads of other factors. The economy is essentially a SoS that politicians,
reserve bank officials and other powerbrokers endeavour to have top-down
organisational influence and control over, and they tend to have little
understanding of SoS.
Engaging with and Supporting the
Emergence of Wellbeing in SoS
SoS
are typically already present in
social systems – the challenge is to notice the SoS process – connexity
perceiving.
Another
challenge is how to support the process in ways that doesn’t collapse the SoS
process; important aspects are looking for:
o Self
organising that is already happening
o Informal structure and
order operating outside of any formal structure
and/or formal process
o The
significance of a few simple salient aspects influencing complex natural SoS
and their outcomes (Berlow, 2010)
o System
parts fitting together – the survival of the fitting
o People
networking outside of formal arrangements and channels for making things happen
o Dynamic
changes occurring while still maintaining a coherent over-all order in the
self-organising
o ‘Organising’
emerging from happenings to myriads of system
aspects
o People
energy cohering in ‘determining’ happenings in naturally occurring contexts
o Emergent
properties, patterns, and repeated patterns
o Naturally
combining aspects.
o A
few simple salient aspects influencing complex systems and their outcomes
o Social
phenomena that have metaphorical similarities to natural phenomena – e.g. free
energy in the social system – akin to gravity (an example is a number of folk
with a passion for something being self starters in engaging in informal
action; for example, the three different networks in ASIC
o People’s
passions and interests tending to coalesce around themes that are conducive to
coherence
o What
happens by a few self-starters being ‘picked up’ and used by the many in a SoS
o Things
that work being passed on in networks as rumours and adapted to new contexts
o Folk
naturally engaging with SoS without any particular consciousness of process
o Opportunity
to stack possibilities for the emergence of SoS
o Aspects,
structures and process that are typically simultaneously interrelated,
interconnected, and interdependent using ‘connexity’ perceiving
o Contexts
for cultivating connexity perception so as to be able to sense connexity in
systems – looking for inter-connecting and inter-relating and inter-depending -
and all of these aspects being linked to informal social processes
o System
aspects that are informally organised via grapevines and rumours networks
passing on rumours of what works
o Organising
aspects distributed through the total
system of systems or within sub-sections
o SoS contributing
in sometimes difficult to notice and unpredictable ways in organising form,
structure, process, and emerging outcomes
o Top-down
organisation types dismissing Self-Organising
Systems aspects as being ‘not organised’
or ‘not organised properly’
o System
aspects that are self-organising such that imposers want to shut down SoS or
bring SoS under top-down direction and control, and want to impose people to be
‘in charge’ of SoS action; people who will tell other people involved in SoS
what to do, and plan and decide what they do
o SoS
action where those involved are using relational
type knowing for better fitting to increase emergence and tapping into and
utilising the wisdom and knowing within system members and are not using the
manipulating type knowing of the controllers
o Ways
whereby complex SoS arise out of a
multiple relatively simple
interactions
o SoS
action that is constituting integrated ‘levels’ and ‘matrices’ (weblike
networks)
One of
the major potential limiting factors in supporting SoS is typically, one’s
pervasive socialisation within the reality of the dominant top-down system
imposed organisation.
Supporting the Emergence of SoS -
Without Collapsing SoS
There
is a mass of aspects of SoS that may be noticed, and gently and subtly engaged
in to support the emergence of SoS - without collapsing SoS.
Some
of these aspects:
o Increasing
awareness of awareness of being in the world with others
o Increasing
finesse in connexity perceiving
o Setting
up contexts rich with possibilities
o Setting
up masses of wellbeing possibilities
o Connecting
and relating and passing on what’s happening
o Going
to places with increased chance of connecting and relating with others,
especially significant others in SoS terms – networkers, nodal people and self
starters
o Increasing
the use of the passive voice in internal dialogue, and in conversing with
others, as in ‘things may happen’,
rather than ‘you can/will do this for me’
o Use
of softeners as in ‘may’, ‘perhaps’
o Surrendering
to SoS and going with the flow
o There
is a pervasive positive feel good vibe that pervades SoS in full flight
ConFest
is a campout conference-festival now ran by Down to Earth Victoria Inc. that was
first held out of Canberra, Australia in 1976. The central and abiding theme of
ConFest is ‘exploring ways of evolving and sustaining community and alternative
lifestyles’. The people who energised the first few ConFests well knew that the
processes for setting up ConFest were as important, or even more important than
ConFest itself, as working out how to work together in community was an
essential by-product of the site set-up process. The following segment briefly
outlines an example of a SoS at ConFest, which demonstrates that it’s possible
to mimic nature (biomimicry) in processes supporting the emergence of SoS.
A
few Examples:
o CB
Radios mounted on poles in villages and around 80 CB radios carried by the core
group mean that they is a continual stream of happenings that everyone in the
core group is hearing so if anyone asks where a star picket driver is a few
locations are given by those in the know. Things keep changing and we are all
linked into the changing flux and flow of SoS; each night the core group eat
and talk together so that everyone hears the days happenings and shares in
tomorrow’s doings
o Recall
the 17 themes relating to visiting DTE Sites. Every one of them relates to
enriching SoS with community
During
Easter 2011 there were 671 workshops (one, two, or three hour in length) held
over the five days of the gathering. During the Easter 2013 and 2014 there were
770 and 872 workshops respectively. These were announced on the Workshop notice
boards as happening at 33–33-42 prepared outdoor workshop sites. Other more
informal workshops happened throughout the Site and were only advised on local
area noticeboards. There were well over 7,000- 10,000 attendances at workshops
during these Easter ConFests. After paying the Aus$80-100 entrance fee, all
workshops are free and all workshop presenters volunteer their time. Each of
these workshops were run by one, or two, or more people on a very wide range of
wellbeing related themes. Some workshops were talks, some were experiential,
and some were discussions - many forms. All of this massive workshop process is
self-organising!
Aspects
of this complex workshop SoS:
o Though
it is commonly understood that workshops ‘happen’ at ConFest, the workshop
process is not pre-ordinate – the whole of it is not organisationally
determined in advance
o It
does not involve top-down imposed organisation – though there are some that see
the ‘need’ for someone to be ‘in charge’ of workshops or ‘running’ the workshop
scene. Others more attuned and resonating with SoS sense that other very
different and more subtler roles are fitting
o At
ConFest workshops and everything to
do with them emerge as a SoS
o The workshop boards and workshop spaces are two
simple salient aspects of the workshop process, and these ‘emerge’ as
is the way in complex natural systems
o New
boards are acquired when needed and reused. Rope to erect workshop shade tarps
is acquired. Chalk is acquired and put out near the workshop boards as needed -
a few boxes of chalk are stashed nearby and a few know where they are
o Temporary
carports have typically being used to provide shade over the workshop
noticeboards and to ensure workshop information is not lost to rain. People
know where the boards and carport parts are located; more recently, a large
stretch tent has been used
o Some
folk know how to light the workshop boards at night with batteries and
inverters and some know how to recharge the batteries
o Over
the years a process has been fostered whereby many folk know how the workshop
boards go up just before ConFest; some know where the workshop boards and
carports have been stored last ConFest; some know what capacity is available
from time to time to have the boards and covering brought over; communal
discussion determines where the boards will be located for ConFest; energy
assembles for assembling the boards; over time a number of folk have learnt the
patterns of the layout of the lines on the board; various steps are taken to
ensure sufficient chalk is available
o This
workshop system elements, process, and patterns arise out of a multiple
relatively simple interactions between people with an interest in the theme of
workshops
o Just
before ConFest starts a number of people now find each other and the word goes
out that at a certain time and place workshop boards and workshop tarps are
being erected. A team of around six or seven are all that’s needed for either
job. Only two or three need prior experience and many have formed that team
over the years
o Some
areas now erect their own workshop spaces such as Bliss Kitchen, Tipi Village
and a few Yoga energies, and either bring their own resources or use some of
DTE resources by linking in with those who know where they are
o There
is a growing consciousness of selecting ideal places for workshops and what to
look for, and how to have these selected before they are lost to ConFest
campers
o The
tarps set-up people now know where to get the tarps, ladders, and rope
o They
bring along a few sharp knives. They know how to keep their knife, as knives
are easily lost if placed randomly on the ground
o Originally,
folk involved thought they were ‘putting up tarps’, and the shade of the tarp
they were erecting would be over in a pile of dead trees. Now they know that we
are ‘creating ambience, shade and useable space’ with standing room for say 180
people, and tarps are set at appropriate heights and angles to create useable
shade throughout the day – it may get VERY hot during ConFest
o There
is a growing knowledge of how to tie the tarps to trees and star pickets
o Typically,
nine to twelve tarps are erected and the sites named
o Soon
many more workshop places have been created by other ConFesters as a
self-organising phenomenon – 42 places at Easter 2014
o Workshop
locations and their names are put on a site map on a separate board placed near
the workshop boards showing the workshop sites locations
o Within
this workshop energising process, many people have got to know one another as a
micro-community; and ‘common interest in the workshop process’ is the theme
conducive to coherence among these people
o Once
the boards are ruled and the names of workshop places are put on top of the
columns, that is the signal for the SoS to go into very high gear
o Within
an hour or two perhaps a hundred and fifty or more workshops are written up
and, as there is space for two days of workshops, the writing up of subsequent
days workshops is all self-organising during the seven days of the festival; by
the end of the second day over 350 workshops had been written on the boards
o This
workshop SoS is constituted by hundreds of simple salient self-organising acts
by hundreds of people - emergent acts that integrate into the complex workshop
Self Organising System
o ‘Love of the ConFest workshop scene’ is
the permeating theme that is ‘conducive to coherence’ in all of this
SoS; this Love of the ConFest workshop
scene is the framing value of all of this SoS and engenders a palpable
gentle energy that is very apparent to anyone that is sensitised to feel
love-in-action
The
ConFest Workshop process is a model SoS that sustains the original theme at the
founding of ConFest, ‘exploring ways of evolving and sustaining community and
alternative lifestyles’.
The
workshop SoS may be adopted and adapted widely in ConFest site set up and pack
away, during ConFest, and more widely in actions for social change.
References:
Berlow, E., (2010). How Complexity Leads to Simplicity.
Internet Source, sighted Dec 2010. http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_berlow_how_complexity_leads_to_simplicity.html
Camerzine,
S., (2011). Self-organising Systems. Internet Source, sighted Feb 2012.
http://web.mac.com/camazine/Camazine/Self-organization_files/Self-organization.pdf
Other Links:
ConFest and the Next
250 Years
On All Coffee Break
Conferencing