Chapters of a whole event (life):  
The canonical succession of self-organization in naturally occurring systems,
   the "beginning to end, whole story" of the origin and life cycle of organized natural systems as events in time.

JLH HDS systems design science  6/01/09, 9/7/10, 7/25/11, 5/31/13

Chapter 0, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6

History curve &Timeline models from others - Spatial Diagrams of Causal Systems - Related topics - Edit Footnotes

Relationship to the physics complex system change
 

Natural systems are self-organizing learning processes -  applications & discussion

continued in Reading Nature's Signals based on  1990's Theory & Applications of the General Physics

Detailed Diagram

Classic Life cycle of natural system development and decay, alternating bursts and settlings of change

    - e.g. traced as for the development of an energy use event from its beginning to its end
    - used to refer to the general succession of necessary phases of organizational development
    - implied by the conservation laws, that it takes a process to change a process
    - used to help locate & study the periods of complex emergence of change in nature.

-- click above for old image --

Descriptive Notes

Descriptive names

(Building  up  &  Building down)  -  Maintaining  - (Breaking up & Breaking down)

(Divergence & Convergence in growth) - Maturity - (Divergence & Convergence in decline)

(beginning to completing growth) - maturity - (beginning to completing decline) 

(multiply searches to filling in the gaps) - stability - (multiply gaps to filling in searches)         

(branching out to branching in) - stability - (branching out to branching in)

(foundations to finishes) - use - (dismantling to recycling)

(collect) - transform - (distribute)

(departure & arrival) - resident - (departure & arrival)

(R selected sere to K selected sere) - climax ecology - (R selected sere to K selected sere)

(business start-up to market saturation) - cash cow - (break-up for parts to scrap heap          ) 

Diagram KEY   
Chapter#, Highlighted Shape of Process, Signs of derivative rates d', d'', d''', d''''

Point#, Highlighted Time of Event,
Illustrative image, Characterizations

Chapter 0. .... no measures 0,0,0,0,... (next, prior)

Stage 0, Open Environment, accumulation of potentials, "before"

1. proto-organization forms, the invisible phase, a quiet allowing fragile things to form without perturbation

2. stable gradient wall, a potential to become tunneled by development of the system, no investment no returns

3. information unconnected

4. fragmentary threads

5. no network definable

6. no features observable

7. pre-connection/arousal, dissonance

8. exceptions

Point I.      .| .

Germination/Initiation, the seed of development, venture capital, fertilization, a combination of a non-renewable resource and a germ of organization or design, the "ah ha" moment occurring in an environment of opportunity for it.

a small flurry of events, consuming a 'seed' resource, venture capital initiating smaller scale process or "kick-start", orientation inward a distributed 'pull' or 'centripality' as loops appear

a continuity of change develops (1st outside observability) the 'little bang' that initiates the big boom of immature growth and development predicted by the physics of change

Chapter 1 .| .deriv's all positive +, +, +, +,... (next, prior)

Growth/Gestation, multiply internal frameworks, "Building  up" - Immature Development - divergent increase

1. 1st observed as an emerging continuity
   regular immature growth explosion, homeorhesis

2. increasing energy density to size, intensification,
   growth, auto-catalysis, increasing EROI

3. increasing acquisition of information constraints

4. elaborating self-organizing interior networks,
   exploring their fringe, replicating positive returns

5. network topologies start w/ uniform distrib. (1)

6. changes of scale without limits, self-organization

7. branching out, initiation/elaboration, possibly to a point of collapse

8. seed resource & self-investment, innovation, growing returns invested in expansion

Point II.      .| .

Scale Transformation Point 1.  Birth/Emergence, Connection - reorientation from internal to external environmental relationships and responses

	for maturation, turning outward, separation from origins, point of birth, and independence switch to change in proportion to future from change in proportion to past
	for overextended immaturity, point of diminishing returns for self-investment start reducing opportunity and increasing conflict

Chapter 2 .| . deriv's +, -, -, -, -,... (next, prior)

Maturation/Integration, Completing internal relationships, "Building  down", Develop external relationships -
(or failure to make the jump)

1. stabilization & environ. integration, developing independence, or not

2. energy maximization, efficiency as resource, diminishing rate of returns

3. information refinement and diversification

4. network pruning to form hubs diversifying links to exterior, or not

5. network topologies end w/ inv. power law distrib. (1)

6. expansion responsive to limits, self-org/adaptation or not

7. branching in, completion/refinement, maturation

8. sustainable resource & other-investment, stabilizing returns, diminishing returns for expansion

Point III.      .| .

Stabilization/Balance, Point of completion, Confirmation of role in destination niche in environment

Chapter 3  ..  deriv's +, -, +, -, +,...  (next, prior)

Stage 3, Mature vitality - Continuation, homeostasis, normalizing strain within and without

1. Stable responsive fluctuation, homeostasis, reproduction

2. stable energy density flow rate, stable investment & return

3. Healing exceeds information decay, recovery from perturbations

4. connections with other networks slowly adapt

5. network topologies, keeping power law distribution.

6. limits moving with environments, self-adaptation

7. participation in larger systems & relations, engagement

8. service period, integration with community

Point IV.      .| .

Destabilization/Imbalance - Disconfirmation and loss of role in established niche in environment

disengagement with larger scales not keeping up, breaking chains

Chapter 4   .|.  deriv's -, +, +, +, +,...  (next, prior)

Breaking up/Infirmity - Disintegration, divergent decline & senescence

1. sensitivity to perturbation, unrecoverable gaps in homeostasis and environmental adaptation , aging accelerates

2. energy flow and efficiency decline, declining investment & returns

3. information resources insufficient for maintenance, excess information to the point of inflexibility

4. network begins to loose critical mass or hubs

5. unknown network statistical features

6. internal & external connections loosen

7. disengaging

8. market succession to other needs

Point IV.      .| .

Scale Transformation Point 2. Disengagement/Disconnection - Point of withdrawal - reorientation from environmental to internal relationships and responses

turning inward reorientation toward internal needs letting go of external connections draws others into taking over the niche.

Chapter 5   .|.  deriv's -, -, -, -, -,...  (next, prior)

Decay - "Breaking down", convergent decline & senescence,

1. breakdown into separated parts

2. Energy density flow rate gradually dropping below functional requirements, vanishing investment & returns

3. unresponsive functions impose information burden

4. some network remnants reconnect on new paths

5. unknown network statistical features

6. withdrawal from environ. draws others into niche

7. detachment & decay

8. lingering and shrinking niche

Point VI.     . |.

Death/Termination - opposite of germination/initiation, disbanding the emergent scale, event that ends the process

a small flurry of events detachment from environment

dissolution, bankruptcy, death

Chapter 6   . ... no measures... (next, prior)

Stage 6, Legacy lingering echoes, "after"

1. environmental footprint fades, or used by others, some maintained
2. stores and sources become used by others, no energy flow
3. environmental niche & system pattern memory fading
4. network remnants serve as 'compost' of parts or info
5. unknown statistical features or remains
6. trails of past effects
7. pre-connection/arousal?
8. 
    

1) P Henshaw 1993, 2008 "The physics of change" and "Continuity and divergence theorem"

2) Stan Salthe 1993 Development and Evolution: Complexity and Change in Biology, MIT Press.

3) P Henshaw 1985 Directed Opportunity, Directed Impetus: New tools for investigating autonomous causation, Proceedings, Society for General Systems Research, Louisville KY http://www.synapse9.com/DirOpp.pdf

Numerous Other Topics - could be studied for their characteristics at each of the 6 points and 5 periods of change.

1. In Network maps, nodes tend to be 'hives' and links to be 'markets' and the form of each evolves with the whole.  Mechanism of network includes numerous reciprocating cycles acting as pumps, like self-investment of energy in constructing and driving energy converting parts.

2. Continuities tending to regular proportional change with multi scale fluctuation rather than algorithmic change, often indicating interaction with concurrently responding partners in the environment
3. I find the best way to describe it is by saying that in stabilizing systems develop “ESP” or “equal strain principle”, in which they internally equalize strains and so the proportional relationships among their parts, and so define constant relationships and ‘stability’.   That’s another name for homeostasis, but more about how it works.   Sometimes they stabilize around a constant, sometimes around a rate of change, etc.
4. the different characteristic individualities of development for each phase, like the paths of the environment maturing systems discover to integrate with or the paths of breakdown and loss of connections at the end.
5. sometimes complex multi-stage life cycles like successive molting in an insect life cycle
6. Various business management strategies apply to each chapter
7. The 'natural laws' of the emergent system are an observer's expectations derived from the network of proportional relationships that it's network of internal balances establish, and also evolve with characteristic changes through each chapter.
8. System "variety" in Ashby's sense, declines as the 'natural laws' of a system develop, as providing a more simplified means of control using the properties of the system itself, but then increases and changes boundaries as the system matures and complexly integrates with it's environment.

Related Reference Views of punctuated equilibrium as a process:

Connie JG Gersick  1991 "Revolutionary Change Theories: A Multilevel Exploration of the Punctuated Equilibrium Paradigm" The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 16, No. 1  pp. 10-36 http://www.jstor.org/stable/258605

Brown, Shona L. Eisenhardt, Katleen M 1997 The art of continuous change: linking complexity theory and time-paced evolution in relentlessly shifting organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-19586840.html

Lyytinen, K., Newman, M. 2006. "Punctuated Equilibrium, Process Models and Information System Development and Change: Towards a Socio-Technical Process Analysis," Case Western Reserve University, USA . Sprouts: Working Papers on Information Systems, 6(1). http://sprouts.aisnet.org/6

Kalle Lyytinen, Mike Newman  2006 "Punctuated Equilibrium, Process Models and Information System Development and Change: Towards a Socio-Technical Process Analysis" http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.95.2108

Sweta D. Vajir 2007 "Adaptive Strategic Planning: Punctuated Equilibrium" ICFAI Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 38-46, June 2007 http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1018873

Stuart Kauffman, 2008 Reinventing the Sacred, 1995 At Home in the Universe, (quoted in Nash, 1995) "Soon after a major innovation, discovery of profoundly different variations is easy. Later innovation is limited to modest improvements on increasingly optimized designs"

Kalle Lyytinen and Mike Newman 2008 "Explaining information systems change: a punctuated socio-technical change model" European Journal of Information Systems 17, 589–613 & 2008 Operational Research Society Ltd. All rights reserved 0960-085X/08 www.palgrave-journals.com/ejis/

Ichak Adizes - Adizes Institute, business learning consultants and education -  http://www.adizes.com/ publications http://www.adizes.com/products_adizes_books.html

Other Related Timeline Models

1a Scales of Learning Phases                          1b Product Succession Curves

1c. Adizes Business plan development phases

 Performance Learning Curves:    2a. On the Job  &   2b Expertise

3a Action Learning Diagram

	Timeline Models 6/01/09
1a	Scales of Learning	Examples	Uses	Key Observations
1b	Product Succession
1c	Adizes Business Plan
2	Performance On the Job
3a	Expertise Learning
4	Action Learing

9/18/09 There is a basic physics theorem underlying this whole approach to understanding self-organizing (non-deterministic) systems.  It connects the observed sequence of natural developmental processes with the requirements of energy conservation for systems of changing scale, expanding to an infinite series of conservation laws to derive a "law of continuity" for organizational change in nature.  The proof follows from taking a series of derivatives of the conservation laws and then reintegrating them, and then seeing how the form of the result fits the range of observed development processes.    Every energy transfer needs to begin and end without infinite accelerations, and the result is a map of how that could happen, as discussed in notes on the physics of change.   Each of the four directions of process feedback are irreversible processes of either divergent and convergent change, prompted by and prompting events on other scales.

Even when you don't observe the whole chain of development, the law of continuity implies a "null hypothesis".   Evidence of conserved change, such as changes of state or punctuated equilibria, point to discoverable complex systems of developmental diverging & converging change producing them, along with the environmental gradient they employ as an energy source.    Similarly noticing any one of the stages of a life-cycle can lead to discovering the others it is part of.   In that way these shapes and their characteristics are used as "pointers" to help unravel the local story of a system development event.

The origin of this model was watching development systems change their entire way of changing, engaging with new environments during an otherwise "seamless and uneventful" point #2 where their accelerations of change reverse.   Environmental relationships that had been exhibiting exploding kinds innovation and energy use suddenly switch to exhibiting refinements of design and stabilizing energy use.   I eventually realized that also corresponded to the transformational switch in attention and responses from internal to external relationships (#2) and matches the other switch from external to internal relationships (#4).   These change of scale moments generally accompany, and may require, periods of distinct calm.    It happens SO smoothly, during the growth of every organism, for example, as well as in the middle of every successful project at the office, it's rather mysteriously invisible as the key turning point in every succession of events that results in "conserved change" in environmental organization.

These "Transformation points" when complex systems switch their orientation from internal to external relationships, and from origin to destination environments, also correspond to periods of adding successively bigger unfinished business to taking successively smaller steps toward completing them.   For building a house, for example, that point is approximately when the roof goes on, and then successively smaller and smaller finishing tasks are needed to finally complete it before it can be occupied.   Those building projects that, for one or another reason, effectively "run out of lumber before putting on the roof", omit their growth transformation point, and never get completed and put into service as a result.

Physics of Happening  jlh