Holistic Natural Systems -- Design & Steering, Guiding New Science for Transformation

TL;DR

This paper explores how natural systems grow, adapt, and steer through their environments, emphasizing the importance of coupling internal designs with external contexts for sustainable development and transformation.

Contribution

It introduces new methods for comparing growth systems in their natural contexts to understand their coupling and steering mechanisms for better adaptation and survival.

Findings

Systems that respect internal limits adapt better.

Rich external experience improves steering in living systems.

Emerging centers of activity signal growth and potential transformation.

Abstract

Like all natural systems, great societies and their cultures emerge by a growth process from their environments, developing, organized, and behaving as wholes with their internal designs linked with their external worlds. So the general patterns of how growth produces both successful and failing new designs for new systems can be a great teacher of what does and does not successfully work. Our own world culture imperils its survival by being unresponsive to change as our world economy has; driven to endlessly maximize its compound growth and so growing conflict with internal and external systems. New methods now let us compare different kinds of growth systems in their natural contexts to expose their different ways of coupling with their contexts and steering in response to their futures. Some work out fine by respecting internal limits and finding a fit with external parts, and so working adaptively for survival as a whole. For living systems, steering is much improved by rich experience of external contexts, allowing more prompt attention and response to new risks and opportunities. Recognizing emerging systems starts with noticing change associated with a growing center of relationships, a nucleus of activity in a nourishing place, something sprouting. Storms, trees, relationships, organisms, businesses, organizations, cultures, etc., all start as emerging centers of design that develop by capturing resources from their contexts to expand their ability to capture more. As such, growth begins and develops as a natural exploratory process, starting with compound growth and needing to creatively respond to its natural limits to achieve long life and a stable place in the world. The coupling of internal human thoughts and external worlds matters, too; however, only indirectly connected with our contexts, our fixed images of a changing world can blind us to the meanings of life.