Complex Adaptive Systems/Living Systems

Post your thoughts on what the CAS/LS materials mean to you? Have these ideas influenced your thinking? How? Is there an idea or concept that really stands out? Please reflect on this...

I found the CAS/LS materials to be the most fascinating and intriguing of the materials presented during the course. It seems to be a field that explains so much---if CAS can't explain it, then surely math can, and then what's left to explain other than emotion? I feel like the CAS materials explain so much of ecology, evolution, and life, and I walked away thinking this field is highly understudied (probably just my ignorance, but I have never heard of CAS before this course!).

CAS has greatly influenced my thinking, and it is an area I long to learn more and more about.

There were a few points in the materials that I want to focus on because they really stood out to me:

Chaotic Systems: This seems so pertinent to describing so many things I've studied in my career as a computer modeler, a biologist, and other related fields, it's almost overwhelming. I remember when I was younger, and I used to believe in God as the Catholic Church perceived God. I would struggle with the idea of the holy trinity. It is something like the mind's struggle to accept a system can generate order and disorder simultaneously. I also came away with the fact that ecologists and evolutionary biologists are GREATLY misusing the term random. I look forward to learning more about chaotic systems in nature.

Autopoiesis: I still struggle with the definition of this. My struggle is due to my determination to distinguish between living and non-living systems. When I first read about this term in Capra, I didn't want to apply it to computer programs. I am ok with saying a non-living system can be autopoietic-like, but I don't like applying autopoiesis to machines. I have more understanding to gain here.

Single-vs-Double Loop Learning: Wow. What can I say? This is getting posted somewhere I can see it all the time. I strive for double loop learning, but of course, fall short in so many ways.

The Edge of Chaos: Like-wise, the edge of chaos had a profound effect on me. I can see why some many things are not changing, that we hope would. American politics comes to mind- until citizens approach that edge of chaos, we are never going to emerge at a higher level. Think of all the "New Emerging Possibilities?"