THE INTEGRITY PAPERS | Genre Group - Buchanan | ceptualinstitute.com |
COMER Columns
Articles published in "Economic Reform"
the Journal of the 'Committee on Monetary and Economic Reform'COMER Column #1 Vol. 12, No. 7, July 2000.
Open Systems - Information and Complexity
In a stimulating paper - Is the Globalised Deregulated Market Coming to Mimic the Late Soviet Union? (Economic Reform, Vol. 12, No. 3 March 2000), William Krehm wrote:
" ... We must extend the negentropy-entropy concept from a purely physical one to take in similar social phenomena. ("Negentropy" is the opposite of entropy, i.e. it is energy in available form because of a difference of energy levels.) ... In applying the entropy concept to social matters, however, we are dealing essentially with a metaphor. There is no mathematical equivalence between units of the various negentropies involved.
What we are concerned with is essentially the means and motivation to keep the various subsystems of the economy and society as functioning relationships. For this it is not only possible but essential to transfer negentropy from one subsystem to another."Such an approach touches on very important issues, seeking to articulate the most fundamental factors at work. Definitions of "negentropy" have been grounded variously in physics, in information theory and in cybernetics. One commonly accepted version*: "A meaningful interpretation of negentropy is that it measures the complexity of a physical structure in which quantities of energy are invested, e.g., buildings, .... organisms [or] the infrastructure of a society. In this sense organisms may be said to become more complex by feeding not on energy but on negentropy ...." (* from the Web Dictionary of Cybernetics and Systems - http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ASC/INdexASC.html )
In a seminal book, *What is Life?* , the physicist Erwin Schroedinger famously stated that "life feeds on entropy". In principle, systems that are organisationally "closed" to information or energy will "run down" or depreciate over time. No amount of available energy will suffice if a system - an individual or a society - is closed to information.
In communications, negative entropy has been described as the statistical measure of the probability of meaningful information, and in cybernetics, of the probability of order or control. The more complex the organisation, the greater the number or variety of states and conditions that must be taken into account by systems of control and governance. These principles apply to all organisations and social systems - persons, institutions, deregulated markets or command economies - and so determine what may be possible.
Among the fallacies of the totalitarian state, e.g. the Late Soviet Union, is the notion that human beings can be treated like objects, and controlled simply by physical means. Among the fallacies of the capitalist dream of a Globalised Deregulated Market may be the notion that human beings are described adequately in terms of "economic man", governed by physical
considerations.
Although there have been many anticipations on the basis of traditional science and historical experience (see *The Open society and its Enemies* for Karl Popper's critique of Marxism and of Plato's Republic.) the rigorous application of such principles is still a challenge for discovery and invention by systems sciences.
What might it mean to "transfer negentropy from one subsystem to another?" Autonomous and self-governing processes arise at every level. Information requirements are a function of the needs of each subsystem, and communication may be required to assess these. Organs of the human body have pacemakers and send messages. What counts as information at one level may require interpretation at others. Organisations unable to take into account the complexities involved in the challenges they face both externally and internally can only succumb to uncertainty and disorder..
Living systems are not simply functions of their physical substrate; their complexity involves many states and a higher order of organisation, which physical laws support be cannot alone explain. Every living system or organisation seeks to meet its own maintenance and other vital needs, and to enhance security. In human societies effective relationships are functions of selective discriminations and choices derived from experience and learning, not arbitrary or externally imposed values.
Inevitable tendencies to deterioration apply to all processes and set the parameters for all systems - natural, human and artificial. Key to adaptation are the information systems and organisational relationships in place. Governing processes at the highest levels involve internalised maps and symbolic controls - analysis and the setting of goals, priorities and values. Conditions for human survival must be studied out and learned by individuals. In the absence of conscious intervention, entropic decay will proceed according to physical laws.
What is required in human affairs is suitable action, guided by conscious deliberation and the strategic use of information. Effective use of language may be key for this. Where language loses its powers of discrimination, and distinctions essential to an understanding of the challenges faced are allowed to deteriorate to a low common demoninator, values are corrupted
and options inadequate to maintain organisation. Such factors underlie the situation described by the poet W.B.Yeats: "the centre does not hold and things fall apart."
Just as chlorophyll draws upon captured photons, providing energy for life systems, conscious efforts at inventive reorganisation are required to identify and draw upon energies of many kinds to create structures of meaning in society. What is essential to hold things together with integrity and purpose are the appropriate values or decision criteria which
reflect adaptive requirements and steer behaviour accordingly..
The meaning of negentropy in terms of cybernetic systems lies in the well informed choice of aims, continuing reevaluation of progress, and feedback to correct errors. These processes provide the way to tackle "the means and motivation to keep the various subsystems of the economy and society as functioning relationships".