1SYMPOIETIC AND AUTOPOIETIC SYSTEMS: A NEW DISTINCTION FOR SELF-ORGANIZING SYSTEMS

Heuristics provide essential tools for understanding living systems, their characteristics and their behaviours. My intent in this paper is to describe a considerably different heuristic than the conventional tools. My motivation is a concern that heuristics based on the organism metaphor are often inappropriate and misleading for understanding complex systems. I propose a new concept based on an interpretation of ecosystems: sympoietic systems. These are complex, self-organizing but collectively producing, boundaryless systems. A subsequent distinction between sympoietic and autopoietic systems is discussed. This distinction arises from defining a difference between three key system characteristics: 1) autopoietic systems have self-defined boundaries, sympoietic systems do not; 2) autopoietic systems are self-produced, sympoietic systems are collectively-produced; and, 3) autopoietic systems are organizationally closed, sympoietic systems are organizationally ajar. A range of other characteristics arise from these differences. Autopoietic systems are homeostatic, development oriented, centrally controlled, predictable and efficient. Sympoietic systems are homeorhetic, evolutionary, distributively controlled, unpredictable and adaptive. Recognized as caricatures at ends of a conceptual continuum, these descriptions present a useful heuristic. By introducing an alternative to the organism metaphor, the conceptualization of sympoietic systems draws attention to many, often neglected, complex system characteristics. In addition, the heuristic provides a means for recognizing trade-offs between the two sets of characteristics that are associated with the two system types. These, and other distinctions, lead to a range of new questions that have significant implications relevant to understanding complex living systems. Since it is based on generic system descriptions, the heuristic can be applied to a wide range of situations, including social, political, economic and cultural systems.

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