SYNERGY AND SELF-ORGANIZATION IN THE EVOLUTION OF COMPLEX-SYSTEMS

Synergy of various kinds has played a significant creative role in evo lution; it has been a prodigious source of evolutionary novelty. Elsew here it has been proposed that the functional (selective) advantages a ssociated with various forms of synergistic phenomena have been an imp ortant cause of the 'progressive' evolution of complex systems over ti me. Underlying the many specific steps in the complexification process , a common functional principle has been operative. Recent mathematica l modelling work in biology, utilizing a new generation of non-linear dynamical systems models, has resulted in a radically different hypoth esis. It has been asserted that 'spontaneous', autocatalytic processes , which are held to be inherent properties of living matter itself, ma y be responsible for much of the order found in nature and that natura l selection is merely a supporting actor. A new 'physics of biology' i s envisioned in which emerging natural laws of organization will be re cognized as being responsible both for driving the evolutionary proces s and for truncating the role of natural selection. This article descr ibes these two paradigms in some detail and discusses the possible rel ationship between them. Their relevance to the process of human evolut ion is also briefly discussed.