Meta-System Transition
The term for a theory being settled down by the Principia Cybernetica Project as "MetaSystem Transition theory" (MST theory), that says that as the known world evolves toward more complexity, it organizes into "higher" forms that let lower forms do things, while they control things instead of doing them, that is, that it evolves from systems to meta-systems.The liberal/evolutionist/dynamicalsystemic analysis explains it in that relatively simple achievements in the meta-system yields great improvements in the system, or allow to achieve similar or greater results without spending as many resources, while developing capabilities that prove useful in quite many unsuspected domains, that allow to take advantage of new forms of free energy not yet rivaled upon.
The development of the various forms of organizations known as life, from particles up to atoms (organizations of particles), up to molecules (organizations of atoms), up to simple organic molecules up to molecule complexes, protocells, and cells (organization of molecules), up to multicellular complexes and multicellular life forms (organization of living cells), up to life forms with specialized organs of increasing complexity (organization of organs), up to life forms with nervous systems (system to coordination organs), up to societies of above living creatures of various complexities, up to ecosystems, up to biospheres, up to the study and development of the above by human rationality, up to god knows what will follow next, all that makes an overwhelming witness for that theory. As for computing, all this means that people, after having developed analog devices, have developed analog device components, which led them to digital device components, and then to computer hardware development, to binary software programming, to macro-assembly software programming, to programming languages (initial Lisp notation), to interpreters, to compilers (Fortran), to low-level languages (C language), to medium-level languages (ML; Lisp has been all the way down to here). TUNES promotes next meta- system transition in computing, what we call high-level languages, and metaprogramming.
Meta-system transition does not mean that there is a pure cut between the system and the "meta-system", which would exist independently, or "detach" from lower dependencies. Actually, the "lower" system is never so active as when the meta-system exists, and the meta-system does depends on this increased activity (that it in turn generates) to even exist, it feeds on it, and promotes it: cellular life has not disappeared but multiplied since multicellular life appeared; the currently single known reasoning species (man) has not had a less active, but a much more active material life, since it developed its spiritual skills and activities; much more people (not counting programs) do assembly programming since interpreters and compilers where invented.
This page is linked from: MST Reflective Tower Self-extensible Valentin F. Turchin