The 10 axioms of Life

Pairing the dynamics of chaos (interdependent feedback mechanisms affecting neighbouring functional elements of a system within the probabilities defined by those elements' own potential to change) with the possibility of either enhancing or mitigating influences coming from other clusters of functional elements, the general rules governing complex, dynamic systems become evident.

The salient word is 'functional' - how a system (or subsystem) behaves; it is not about content. While the content provides the means through which behaviour occurs, different content can still lead to the same functionality as far as a particular system is concerned (we have synonymy).

A pump using a piston in a cylinder has the same functionality (ie, being a pump) as the chemical version (osmosis in plants for example). The content may be different but the effect is the same.

Since feedback loops exist across any scope of systems and their subsystems, a certain functionality affects its neighbours because there is some affinity between the two. To what extent the affected part will change depends on that element's internal configuration and hence what is possible for that subsystem as well as its affinity (ie, its 'closeness') to the influence.

All processes manifesting in some functionality require resources which in the end comes down to energy. The input, the processes within the system, and its output are therefore subject to the availability of the type of energy this system needs in order to perform.

A relatively larger-scale system features buffers due to its size and complexity, thereby delaying the effects of insufficient resources for example for a certain time. In the end however the fundamental laws of thermodynamics and chaos hold, whether the system is about bacteria, whether it is a forest, or a human activity system. The same goes for industry and budgets. There is no such thing as a perpetual motion engine!

Those fundamental rules are -

1. Everything has a cost. Everything.

2. The fundamental cost of any living system comes from its clustering towards complexity, the opposite to entropy.

3. The overall effectiveness of a system is determined by the cumulative potential of its members.

4. Complexity in its highest forms cannot be achieved without first having gained self-awareness.

5. Feedback is a reflection of a system's efforts.

6. The interpretation of feedback depends on the system's ability to abstract.

7. The more a system is able to abstract, the further it can look into the future.

8. A system's realised future is a function of its ability to synchronise the imaginary with the real.

9. Through feedback the system and its environment become one.

10. The overall cost reflects the value of negated entropy.

© Martin Wurzinger - see Terms of Use