3.7 Synergy

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The question: what is life? has occupied poets, scientists and priests. In the next chapter a summary of the evolution of matter and of life will be discussed (based on E.Rubenstein, a medical scientist). We now have a definition of life: a memory (assembly of knowledge) in the form of adapted forms and functions. Cognition about the environment is collected and encoded in living organisms determining the way they behave (move, explore, select, refuse, accept, ingest, and assimilate). The next question is how this "written" record develops, i.e. the gradual apposition of encoded knowledge in living systems.

A substantial part of the answer is: by synergy, the process of demand and response between living organisms and their changing environment. The meaning of the word synergy has been subject to modifications over the years. Its literal meaning is working together. Co-operation naturally occurs in many different contexts. Synergism in theology for instance means that 'divine grace and human will co-operate in the work of regeneration' (Webster's International Dictionary). In a medical context it may mean that two agents add to each other's effect, such as drugs or enzymes.

In a general sense we define synergy as: self-organisation by alternating messages that oppose and complement each other. Synergy is the outcome of dialogue. For an example think of the chemical oscillations introduced in 3.1. Messages interacting in this way are said to be in "dialogue", displaying information flows in two directions which mutually affect each other and are bound to finally reach an agreement. It is specifically the term dialogue that has aroused much controversy. It is understood as "conflict". If conflict is followed by "reconciliation" that interpretation is correct. Correct, at least in social interactions where conflicts which are not immediately reconciled can persist without being life-threatening. However on fundamental levels of life a persisting conflict is unthinkable: conflicting motives have to come to an agreement without delay for life to be sustained. The resistance against the dialogue concept is understandable because until recently a narrow interpretation of dialectical forces in society was in use in communist theory. Kenneth Boulding in his book Ecodynamics (1978), has pointed out that there is much non-dialectical development in human society. However, the examples he gives of non-dialectical development, are on closer inspection clearly the result of dialectical (synergic) interactions. The difference is perhaps not one of definition, but of the broad (distant) versus the close (proximal) view. Looked at superficially a new design of a dress or a car may seem to be the product of a master-designer. A closer look at the creative process will show that during the fashioning trajectory there has been a continuous dialogue between new technical possibilities and public demands and expectations, a purely dialectical procedure of modifications competing with each other and being submitted for selection on the basis of quality, or expected sales.

A similar paradox has been described in an article "Instruction versus Selection" by the eminent immunologist N.K.Jerne with regard to the development of the immune system. From a distance it seems that the system is instructed by the environment to make properly fitting antibodies. This was the distant, "macroscopic" position of immunologists in the first half of the twentieth century. Discoveries in molecular biology gave a supplementary explanation, which is clearly one of dialectical development. It will be discussed in Chapter 5.

Synergy is the most a likely principle that sets evolution in motion and increases complexity. We have seen synergy in action in a first example: the alternating synthesis and decay of cyclic AMP (4.1). Together with its antagonist enzyme it is active in the morphogenesis and behaviour of Dictiostyleum. Its increase led to conglomeration of cells, its decrease by enzymatic decomposition accounted for the wave-like distribution, which in a later phase led to locomotion. Apart from this well researched example numerous chemical oscillators have been reported in other life-systems, interacting with each other to form complex networks or systems. In the second example, cartilage-formation in limbs (4.2), a dynamic equilibrium is established by hyaluronate that impedes clustering of loose cells, and hyaluronidase. The latter is an enzyme that dissolves hyaluronates so that aggregation can go on in the nodes where fibronectin concentration is high.

Networks based on synergy and oscillatory dynamics are manifest in life on all levels. We find alternating states and dynamic equilibria in:

• katabolic phase versus anabolic phase in metabolism

• breathing out vs breathing in

• consolidation vs growth and change

• parasympathetic vs orthosympathetic dominance in the autonomous nervous system

• sleep vs vigilance

• rest vs work

• relaxation vs tension

• diffuse attention vs focussed attention

• designing phase vs effecting phase of any complex activity

Any organisation that possesses a self-righting mechanism maintains its equilibrium by fluctuating around a mean value. Disturbances from internal or external sources alternate with responses to neutralize the disturbance. Dynamic stability is a feature of oscillating networks.

Opposing tendencies meeting, working in alternation, and creating something new, better adapted and more complex, that is synergy in action. With this in mind we will study the immune and the nervous system. They fulfill vital functions in the mature vertebrate organism and possess the property of evolution, that is: they improve their performance by selecting the best fitting responses from each generation of variants. In other words: they are systems capable of learning. To begin with we must define the time-windows in which creative evolution takes place.

4. EVOLUTION IN THE TIME-SCALES OF AEONS, HOURS, SECONDS