Thursday, June 28, 2018

Autopoiesis and structural coupling

Continuing this post, see Maturana's seminal paper "Organization of the living." Therein he notes that all the subsystems of an organism are subservient to the autopoiesis of the system, yet each of those subsystems have their own operationally closed function that must structurally couple with the other subsystems to achieve that organismic unity. He uses the nervous system as an example of one of those subsystems. 

E.g., from the conclusions section (p. 167):

"If the organism and its nervous system are structurally plastic, the continuous realization of the autopoiesis of the organism necessarily results in a structural coupling of the organism and the nervous system to each other, and to the medium in which the autopoiesis is realized."

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