Metasystems
Description
Cadell Last:
"Metasystems occur as a step function separating two qualitatively different levels of organization that can be approximately measured as a sigmoid (S-shaped) curve(Modis, 2012) (i.e. as quantity of interconnections increases, a new qualitative organization must emerge to maintain a new level of complexity). Therefore the metasystem represents a punctuated equilibrium-like process characterized by an accelerated period of subsystem integration, before stabilizing into a new level of organization (Heylighen, 2007, 2015a). In the human system, metasystems have generally stabilized within three different levels of complex organization: hunting, agricultural, industrial (Niele, 2005), and within three different broadly defined forms of control hierarchies: band/tribes, chiefdoms/kingdoms, nation-states (see: Last, 2015).The next system is likely to be constructed utilizing solar power (and a diverse mixture of other renewables, e.g., geothermal, wind, etc.) with a more distributed control organization that transcends contemporary nation-states (i.e. self-organized)."
Discussion
Cadell Last:
"Metasystems occur when environmental conditions favor an adaptive pressure for increased biological or technological information processing capability (Smith and Szathmáry, 1995). Under these conditions functional synergies between cooperative agents that were previously impossible (in this context geographically separated human groups) can produce the emergence of higher complexity and control organization (Corning, 2002, 2014). The coordination of higher controls begins by the cooperative/inclusive utilization of emergent information processing capabilities in a collective information medium, which allows for qualitatively new interaction potentiality (Heylighen, 2006). Control innovation utilizing a new information medium can then allow for higher integration and a new level of complex organization(Heylighen, 1995). Throughout human evolution control innovation has occurred on three emergent information mediums: language, writing, and the printing press(Last, 2014), which have changed the qualitative nature of human interaction potential(bands, kingdoms, nations, etc.)."