Science, Strategy and War The Strategic Theory of ... - Boekje Pienter

TraditionalReductionismLinear causalityObjective realityDeterminismSurvival of the fittestFocus on discrete entitiesLinear relationshipsNewtonian physics perspectivesWorld is predictableModernFocus on hierarchyPredictionBased on 19 th Century physicsEquilibrium/stability/deterministic dynamicsFocus on averagesEmergingholismmutual causalityperspective realityindeterminismadaptive self-organizationfocus on relationships between entitiesnon-linear relationshipsquantum physics perspectivesworld is novel and probabilisticpost-modernfocus on heterarchy (within levels)understandingbased on biologystructure/pattern/self-organization/life cyclesfocus on variationTowards Chaos TheoryDissipative structuresThe concept of self-organization was one of the primary ideas which propelled furtherresearch into system dynamics. Self-organization has emerged as the central concept in thesystems view of life, and like the concepts of feedback and self-regulation, it is closely linkedto networks. Early models of self-organization developed by cyberneticists asserted thatstructural changes take place within a given “variety pool” of structures, and the survivalchances of the system depend on the richness, or “requisite variety” of that pool, as notedabove. There is no creativity, no development, no evolution. The later models include thecreation of novel structures and modes of behavior in the processes of development,learning and evolution. And this process was characterized by two features 6 :self-organization occurs when the open system is operating far-from- equilibrium;non-linear interconnectedness of the system’s components.Chaos and complexity theory of the past two decades emerged from research in the 1960sand 1970s and in particular on advances in made by Prigogine. In 1967 Ilya Prigoginepresented his theory of dissipative structures for which he was awarded the Nobel prize in1977. He discovered that classical thermodynamics lead to the concept of “equilibriumstructures” such as crystals 7 . Here the dissipation of energy in heat was always associatedwith waste. Prigogine’s concept of a dissipative structure introduced a radical change in thisview by showing that in open systems dissipation becomes a source of order. This ideaemphasizes the close association between structure and order on the one side and dissipation6 Capra (1996), p.85.7 Capra (1996), pp.86-89. See also Prigogine's book Order out of Chaos which describes in detail thisdiscovery. In particular chapter V.124