Natural selection and systems

science work hand-in-hand

Dr Rahman Khatibi

Swindon Philosophy

5 November 2009

Summary 1. The Law of Natural Selection

– The first step of evolution

– very slow

– mutually exclusive entities, which are unique

– there is no foresight thus no survival without proliferation

– triggers positive feedback and gives rise to disorder (entropy)

2. Negativ reductive science e feedback (central to systems thinking)

– The second step of evolution

– rather fast

– triggered within mutually inclusive entities interconnectivity

– negative feedback gives rise to the emergence of “purpose”

3. Put them together – The full picture of evolution

– Negative feedback has a selective advantage to reduce entropy

– This is why they work hand-in-hand

1. Natural Selection

• More elegant than

• An assumption that needs no assumption

• It is pluralistic and leads to, and requires, open-mindedness

• Eliminates the need for the play of an upper hand

• Most successful to explain diversification of species

2mcE

Anything that has a selective

advantage, stand the chance

to be selected

1. What is “selective advantage”?

• Put two things together, they may have an emergent property called selective advantage

• There is no a priori “purpose”

• It is simply a potential

• Not outcome of a plan but it just happens

• Its engines are: mutation and gene pools

(the example of giraffe)

• Richard Dawkins on the Universe:

– ‘no design, no purpose,

– no evil and no good...

– nothing but blind pitiless indifference’

• So is natural selection

• Diversity leads to further diversity (positive F.)

1. What things can select? • No selection in the pristine world but just:

– physical and chemical actions and reactions

– cause-and-effects

– the production of complexities

• All the living things with a capacity to selection

• Many types of selection – Sexual selection

– Group selection, population selection, or racial selection

– Trait selection in recruitment, commercial selection or breeding

• But Natural selection is like no other one or the selection without a foresight

Any living thing Input Output

(but it has got to be right)

1. Natural Selection, from inception to outcomes

• Natural selection takes place without a foresight

and without a plan

• There is a selective advantage for proliferation

for survival (known as there is safety in

numbers)

• When all the mutually exclusive entities

proliferate, they give rise to disorder (entropy)

1. Where can we find natural selection?

• A hierarchy of possibilities – In the natural world

– In the society and organisations

– In the world of technological products

– In the world of ideas, constructs, scientific

paradigms and systems

• But exactly where does natural

selection operate?

1. Social Darwinism – “the survival of the fittest”

• Advocators: Herbert Spencer and others

• Acquired/inherited traits transmitted genetically! – economic society was regarded as an arena

– men were competitors

– winners rewarded with survival, some with riches

– losers went to lions!

• Darwin was dead and no chance to express his views

• Dawkins says a “big no” to social Darwinism

• Who would say “yes” to such a madness? – mad ones but some,

– some ideologists,

– some with badly muddled intellect

• Where social Darwinism went wrong?

Social Darwinism is a

misnomer; experimented with

individual selection; nothing

to do with natural selection;

neglected negative feedback

• The risk for such misconstruing is there if we fail to

understand the role of negative feedback

2. Negative Feedback Loops

• Negative feedback: decrease differences

and thereby maintain a steady state Balls fly out

as speed

increases,

Valve closes,

slowing engine

http://www.heeg.de/~roland/SteamEngine.html

Flyball

governor

Steam

engine

Boulton-Watt steam engine -1788

2. History of Negative Feedback Loops (NFL)

• Patent Office for negative feedback: – Patent holder: Mother Nature

– Address: the laboratory of Natural Selection

– Stakeholders: single cells

– Mechanism: a selective advantage of possible collaborations between single cells

• The outcome: – Animal and plant kingdom

– 100s and 1000s of sophisticated negative feedback loops

– Animal communities with communal negative feedback loops

– Emergence of man giving rise to technology and yet new NFL

– James Watt’s Flyball speed control governor- first NF mechanism

2. What is a Negative Feedback Mechanism

• The Unit to be controlled

• Transmitter

• Controller

• Actuator

Positive Wedge

Negative Wedge

Prism Wedge

Controller

Controller

Contro

ller

Unit to

be c

ontro

lled

Actuator

Transmitter

2. Thousands of Examples

ESE

Reducing NFLs to their Building Blocks

• To establish a negative feedback loop: 1. We need sensors/measurements

2. We need “facts engine”

3. We need Actuators

• Put these 3 together, you get: – emergent properties of performance criteria, or goal, purpose

– A capability to articulate the system

– These are a priori, i.e. specified in advance

• Information/data has a pronounced role

• Flow of information has directions

2. Where do we find NFLs

• In the animal and plant kingdoms

• In the ecology of natural environments

• In social environments including morality

• In organisations including ethics

• In legal systems

• In technological products

• In science

2. Where do we not find NFLs

• Where the the rule of jungle applies

• Man uses technology against other species

• In Social Darwinism

• In autocratic governance and dictatorships

• In classic capitalism and Soviet socialism

• In Judaic religions (except for fixed morality)

• In philosophy? Let us examine it.

2. Utilitarianism

• The tenets of utilitarianism: – Actions are to be judged right or wrong by their consequences,

nothing else matters

– The only measure of consequences is happiness or unhappiness

– Each person’s happiness counts the same

• This philosophy was highly influential

• Completely ignored adverse impacts

• Now we are unselecting a great deal of impacts due to utilitarian thinking

• This philosophy gave rise to change but has nothing to say about evolutionary processes

John Stuart Mill Jeremy Bentham

2. Positivism

• Comte’s positivism: – Complexity is made up of matter and mind

– matter determinable and mind indeterminate

• Matter is determinable through science categorised as: – Sub-atomic physics: the science of elements with

intrinsic properties;

– Chemistry: the science of compound elements with compounds having emergent chemical properties absent in the elementary physics;

– Biology: outcomes of interacting compounds with the emergent property of reproduction;

– Psychology: the science of biologically interacting individuals with the emergent property of gaining a consciousness of the environment;

– Sociology: the science of interacting individuals with the emergent property of societies; and

– Anthropology: the science of interacting societies with the emergent property of culture

• No explicit indication of evolution, other than matter is determinable

2. Realism

• To a realist,

– instead of matter or mind the emphasis is on

observable and unobservable phenomena

– both are regarded as real objects,

– they exist independent of perception

– they have properties and enter into relations

independent of concepts

• No explicit indication of evolution

2. Existentialism

• Existentialistic doctrine:

– inner world determinable and outer world indeterminate

– Only revered ones are revealed with an understanding of matter

– Apparently they save the mankind from a nihilist prospect

– The emphasis is on individuals, absence of a rational understanding of the

universe and a dread of absurdity in human life

• Nihilism: the outer world is in decline but revered individuals can

unravel so much from the indeterminate inner world to save the

mankind from a catastrophe

• Hiedegger: nihilism is standing at the door and spreading out

• I dare to say nihilism is a drive for change but quite sure they will refute

me by saying I do not understand them

Martin Heidegger

Søren Kierkegaard

2. Hegelian-Marxian Dialectics

• Marx inverted and applied axiomatic Hegelian

doctrine of dialectics:

– interpenetration of the opposites (thesis and antithesis)

– negation of the negation (antagonism)

– transformation of quantity into quality (revolution)

• The transformation through revolution is violent

• This served as a model of change

• A complete lack of a mechanism for regulation

• Plenty of coercion

2. Thomas Kuhn’s Paradigm shifts

• Kuhn’s doctrine of paradigms connects the Marxian dialectics with Kantian constructivism

• Science is puzzle-solving with occasionally identified anomalies (interpenetration of the opposites)

• Science needs a mechanism to maintain its integrity and its dynamics (negation of the negation)

• Paradigm shifts: Kuhn did not condone coercion nor science entertains such a mechanism and therefore the transformation is not by violent means but by consensus (Kantian constructivism)

• Paradigm shifts is the nearest thing for evolution in science

2. Negative Feedback in Philosophy

• My search (also Google) ended in vain

• Karl Popper (1969) states that – “It is part of my thesis that all our

knowledge grows through the correcting of our mistakes. For example, what is called today ‘negative feed back’ is only an application of the general method of learning from our mistakes – the method of trial and error.”

• Popper is right but no philosopher seems to have taken feedback any deeper!

• Exception: the philosophy of systems science

2. Science: hinterland of Negative Feedback

• Attributes of NFLs in Reductive science: – Negative feedback is the key to scientific

objectivity

– Negative feedback triggers the right to challenge

– Negative feedback creates internal coherence within a system

• Selective advantage of negative feedback was first recognised in the Galilei’s thinking:

Theorisation Observations

Predictions

Assumptions

Decision for reviews

A scientific System Input Output

Do not take things on trust alone. The only

way to understand how something works is

to subject it to experiment; you must

experience it, see it for yourself.

2. Fact Engines for Negative Feedback Loops

• Brains have soft computing capabilities using fuzzy logic as their decision engine

• Diversity of manmade fuzzy

logic fact engines • Others use sophisticated

mathematical models

SENSING

ACTUATION

two wings (di-ptera)

specialized “power” muscles

neural

superposition

eyes

hind wing

gyroscopes

(halteres)

COMPUTATION ~500,000 neurons

But now we are discovering the dimension of

uncertainty. i.e. all decisions after NFLs are still

some sort of trial-and-error, just like the

machinery of natural selection but much faster!

Population rise

Mounting wastes and pollution, Greenhouse gases

The Ozone layer Climate change

2-3 What happened to Reductive Science?

• “Utilitarian philosophers” unwittingly

hijacked reductive science and gave rise:

• Systems science is the birthplace of explicit concept of

negative feedback

• It rescued science by making the way to sustainable

development

• Ludwig von Bertallanffy’s General Theory of Systems

(GST) was a great help but failed to fulfilled its

promises, why?

The Transition Milestones

“Laplace's Demon”: the past completely determines the

future no chance, no choice, and no uncertainty — has been

traced back to Socrates

Pierre Simon Laplace

Max Planck: “the principles of conservation of energy does

not suffice for a unique determination of natural processes.”

The 2nd law of thermodynamics describes the processes

from the initial to final states by referring to dissipated and

unrecoverable internal energy (entropy). Max Planck (1858-47)

Heisenberg: In the atomic scale, it is impossible to

determine simultaneously both the position and velocity of an

electron

Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976)

Current modelling paradigm has also discovered

uncertainty at our normal scale and encourages decision-

making in an uncertain background

3. An Emerging philosophy for NFL?

• Bertallanffy’s General Systems Theory (GTS) –1941

• Promoted GTS with the aims of: – Transferring knowledge by investigating isomorphy of concepts

– Developing adequate theoretical models

– Eliminating duplications in different fields

– Promoting the unity of science

• He articulated the role of entropy and information:

– closed systems: tend to move toward random state or increasing disorder

– open systems: open internally in relation to themselves and externally in relation to the environment

– social systems: other possibilities …

• Schrödinger: living organisms feed on negative entropy, i.e. information

Ludwig von Bertallanffy (1901-72)

Checkland: (1) GST pays for generality with lack of content,

(2) Doubts if information = negative entropy

But he is a leading figure in systems thinking

Schrödinger

3. Let us let the stock of the knowledge available:

• The law of natural selection is an undisputed explanation for mutually exclusive entities

• Its application to society was disastrous due to ignoring existing negative feedback loops

• A great deal is understood on the operation of negative feedback in mutually inclusive entities

• But the current knowledge is not putting the emergence of NFLs in the timeline after the Law of Natural Selection

• Is there a timeline for both?

3. Overview of the Evolutionary Timeline

• The evolution led to the emergence of man 100,000-140,000 years ago

• Man’s facts engine perceived the selective of a diversity new techniques: association, reason, observation, cooperation, telling a lie, coercion, deception

• Association, reason and observation stand out for helping form the cognitive faculty

• The selective advantage of negative feedback emerged in 1500 through reductive science and diversifying since then but this gave rise to entropy

• The selective advantage of reducing the entropy produced by reductive science is being dealt with by systems science since 1940 AND NOW with the foresight of sustainable development

Detailed Timeline • Complexities: organised hierarchically

• Lower Hierarchies: evolve:- – Closed systems: Lifeless complexities emerged through cause-and-effect interactions by

chance

– Life emerged by interacting complexities with the emergent properties of reproduction

– Cultures of primitive living things reproduced as long as their inputs were sufficient, true to the statement in the Matrix film

– Gene pool and mutation: two mechanisms are there and are engine of variations

– Cooperation: There was a selective advantage for cooperation among primitive living cells

• Higher Hierarchies: cooperating primitive living cells evolved – Open Systems: There was a selective advantage for specialisation of the cells through a

centralised control system of cells, where the control was through negative feedback mechanisms

– There was a selective advantage for the emergence of negative feedback to respond to the environment by exploiting information

– Individuality and communality: There was a selective advantage for both self-interests and communal life and both emerged and evolved in a variety of forms

• Diversification and punctuated events made up history until the arrival of the mankind

• A few evolutionary changes in the biology of the mankind gave rise to language and technology

• Man was not much different from other species until, say, 10000 years ago

• Since then settled way of life had a profound effect on the evolution of cultural life

• Since then, the selective advantage of association, reason, observation, cooperation, telling a lie, coercion, deception … has emerged among the mankind

• The selective advantage of morality prevailed in social life, in the form negative feedback against very obvious harmful eefects of killing, steeling, telling a lie …

• Science was born in the form of negative feedback and data in reasoning by Galilei

3. The Evolution in Science

Internally Closed Loop

Externally Open Loop

Output Input Society Reductive Science

Internally Closed Loop

Externally Open Loop

Output Input Society Systems Science

Society No Science yet

Open Loop Output Input

Multi-loop Architecture Science

Input Output

e.g. Philosophy driven by reason

Religion driven by faith

4. Where are we now?

• NFL is not a panacea but can lead to stagnation, e.g. religions and

Nietsche’s attack on Christianity

• Speed of propagation increases from the slow scale of natural

selection to the fast scale of avian/swine flu

• When many systems converge, risks transform from extensive to

extensive-and-intensive scales – the emergence of systemic risk

• Interactions of two systems can be regular but subject to some

uncertainties, whereas interactions of many systems can be subject

to chaos and catastrophic changes

• Should we not slow the pace of our so called progress?

• Are we driven by NFLs or by natural selection or by social

Darwinists?