Requisite Variety, Autopoiesis, and Self-organization

TL;DR

This paper explores the relationship between requisite variety, autopoiesis, and self-organization, proposing that self-organization can enhance system autopoiesis, leading to more adaptive and robust technologies.

Contribution

It introduces a measure of autopoiesis based on complexity ratios and discusses how self-organization can be used to improve system autopoiesis.

Findings

A measure of autopoiesis as the ratio of system to environment complexity.

Self-organization can increase autopoiesis in systems.

Potential for designing more adaptive and robust technologies.

Abstract

Ashby's law of requisite variety states that a controller must have at least as much variety (complexity) as the controlled. Maturana and Varela proposed autopoiesis (self-production) to define living systems. Living systems also require to fulfill the law of requisite variety. A measure of autopoiesis has been proposed as the ratio between the complexity of a system and the complexity of its environment. Self-organization can be used as a concept to guide the design of systems towards higher values of autopoiesis, with the potential of making technology more "living", i.e. adaptive and robust.