Subject: Do We Want to Talk about the

Posted by Louis Macovsky on 2/25/2006
In Reply To:Do We Want to Talk about the Posted by Jay W. Forrester on 2/25/2006

Message:

I frequently think about this question since its first posting.

I would like to rephrase the question: How does one assign purpose to a complex, self-organizing, adaptive system? and if you can identify purpose Does purpose change with complexity, structure, and function over time?

I am more in tune to thinking about biological systems but let me try this one.....

After automobiles left the first H. Ford assembly line, did not the automobile industry self-organize and adapt to changing technology and consumer demands and savvy?...What is the purpose of the salesman on the floor interacting and reacting to the consumer? And to what purpose did the salesman get up and go to work? What is the purpose of hiring or firing salesmen? What is the purpose of the dealership? What is the purpose of a publicly-held auto producing company? What is the purpose of taxation and the corporate laws that control the industry? and so on.

Somewhere in the movie Network it is explained as all relating to the global economy.

In a self-organizing human system, is the purpose only about money at all the levels higher than the individual organism...self-organizing economic systems that adapt to support the industry that is under constant pressure to adapt and survive for the sake of stock-holders? (Is this the root of the present political nature of America?? - I digress).

At the level of the individual organism does purpose come down to individual survival in order to replicate (humans producing offspring as genetically similar as possible to the parents); and otherwise hopefully waking up in reasonable comfort to see the next sunrise? Just like all living organisms.

Is not the purpose then related to the question and depends on the level of hierachy needed to explain structure, function, and behavior? Is not purpose then dependent on the audience of the model/system and therefore purpose biased by question formulation?

It is quite possible that I have missed the whole point of this discussion so let me try this as to the real purpose of anything....

"Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and
harmony with people of all creeds and nations..." Monty Python's Meaning
of Life

oh yeah...don't eat the salmon mousse

Lou

Follow Ups:

Do We Want to Talk about the - Louis Macovsky 2/27/2006