Complexification

Years ago I was thinking deeply about evolution and how things came into being and energy and such. I saw some kind of repeating pattern in how there were these jumps of complexity to the next level of being.

Let’s see if I remember how my thinking went (I haven’t ever calculated a scale for the degree of complexity at each step):

1) Energy comes together into something complex (for lack of a simple verb I used to say ‘complexify’) and becomes particles and atoms of different sizes and activity.
2) Atoms complexify and form compounds.
3) Compounds complexify and form single-cell organisms.
4) Single-cell organisms complexify and form multi-part single-cell organisms.
5) Multi-part single-cell organisms complexify and create multi-cellular creatures, such as us.

At each step in the complexification process there is a specialization – energy specializes into different types of particles, such as neutrons, electrons, protons (not counting the sub-particles); single-cell organisms turn into mitochondria, undulopodia, and other organelles; multi-part single-cells form specialize into neuron, muscle, skin. And these specialized individuals then form   hyperlinked communities (societies?) of like minded individuals to form higher-order functions such as nervous systems, hearts and muscles, livers, and so on – to use an easily grasped example.

Taking this thought further I realized that we were well under way to the next level of complexification past multi-cellular creatures.

6) Multi-cellular creatures complexify into societies – ant colonies, herds, human communities.

At the time I was thinking of all this, there was no Web. The internet was at its infancy. There were no mobile phones. Also, global was something only a few played at. In short, communites were isolated.

I think now that we as humans have been reaching far into the complexification of communities – more so than I expected back 20 years ago.

But, there are still at least two more steps I saw.

7) Communities complexify into hyper-communities.

Indeed, I think we are here. And I think this is where Web 2.0 is at. I think this is where the fusion of cell phones, web, PC, and clever funky devices and software is at. I think this is what all those great minds on the cutting edge of tech are excited about. We are seeing these hyper-communities forming before our eyes and from that the whole world is growing and enriching.

While I thought of all this years ago, it was only in the last few months, after watching the rise of personal publishing, interconnected web services, and so on, that I see we have indeed entered the next step.

(What got me going today was reading an old article from Marc Canter:

Link: The New Paradigm of Tools.

It’s possible that an inter-connecting world of micro-content servers and RSS aware tools can create a distributed, open source, web services based People’s Mesh.

I was doing some reading on Memex, trying to brush up on how it applies to my current work. That’s when all the hypertext and hyper linking and ‘people’s mesh’ (or should I say ‘hyper-communities’?) started jarring the old thoughts from the far reaches of my head.)

But, wait, there was still one more implication to all this:

8) Hyper-communities complexify and create … something.

I have no idea what that something is. I think part of me is reluctant to think of it, since at each level of complexification there has been some suppression of individuality – for example, the liver cell is no longer minding its own business, but is subservient in large part to the greater good of the organism (and I could go on with more examples). Communities do have a suppression of the individual for the greater good of the community. But how much suppression of the individual will happen in hyper-communities or when hyper-communities complexify?

One other thing that is part of the complexification process is the level of communication and the kind of communication. I thought hyper-communities would take time, due to the latency in communication. But, now I see that communication is getting faster and clearly causing the formation of these larger communities and hyper-communities. (I used to think we’d need something like telepathy – see one view of this in Clarke’s ‘Childhood’s End’)

It’s a lot to think about – complexity, energy, hyperlinking of individuals, emergent phenomena, communication, suppression of individuality.

Yeah. That’s the scientist in me that’s been quiet for some time. Hanging around all these techies and social scientists on the bleeding edge in the past year or so has brought all these thoughts and perspectives back out of the dark recesses of my head to be remixed in the 21st century. I think I gotta get back into thinking a bit more.

Enough for now. It’s time for bed.