Generating Wholes

Par exemple, le tout d'un atome fait partie du tout d'une molécule, le tout d'une molécule fait partie du tout d'une cellule, le tout de la cellule fait partie du tout d'un organisme, et ainsi de suite. Chacune de ces entités n'est ni un tout ni une partie, mais un tout/partie : un holon.

The value (“fitness”) of a given combination of building blocks often cannot be predicted by a summing up of values assigned to the component blocks. This nonlinearity (commonly called epistasis in genetics) leads to co-adapted sets of blocks (alleles) that serve to bias sampling and add additional layers to the hierarchy.

We summarize these observations[e.] in the Non-additivity Theorem, alternatively known as the Climax Design Theorem: A LARGE SYSTEM, PRODUCED BY EXPANDING THE DIMENSIONS OF A SMALLER SYSTEM, DOES NOT BEHAVE LIKE THE SMALLER SYSTEm

Complex systems science is different. It seeks order by understanding how simple parts, interacting together and perhaps adapting to one another, create an entirely new whole. The