I presented this subject in Swindon Philosophical Meeting on 5 November 2009. Since then, my ideas have evolved but their framework remain the same.

1. Natural selection and systems
science work hand-in-hand
Dr Rahman Khatibi
Swindon Philosophy
5 November 2009

2. Summary
1. The Law of Natural Selection
– The first step of evolution
– very slow
– mutually exclusive entities, which are unique
– there is no foresight thus no survival without proliferation
– triggers positive feedback and gives rise to disorder (entropy)
2. Negativ reductive science e feedback (central to systems
thinking)
– The second step of evolution
– rather fast
– triggered within mutually inclusive entities interconnectivity
– negative feedback gives rise to the emergence of “purpose”
3. Put them together
– The full picture of evolution
– Negative feedback has a selective advantage to reduce entropy
– This is why they work hand-in-hand

3. 1. Natural Selection
Anything that has a selective
advantage, stand the chance
to be selected
• More elegant than E  mc 2
• An assumption that needs no assumption
• It is pluralistic and leads to, and requires, open-mindedness
• Eliminates the need for the play of an upper hand
• Most successful to explain diversification of species

4. 1. What is “selective advantage”?
• Put two things together, they may have an emergent property called
selective advantage
• There is no a priori “purpose”
• It is simply a potential
• Not outcome of a plan but it just happens
• Its engines are: mutation and gene pools
(the example of giraffe)
• Richard Dawkins on the Universe:
– ‘no design, no purpose,
– no evil and no good...
– nothing but blind pitiless indifference’
• So is natural selection
• Diversity leads to further diversity (positive F.)

5. 1. What things can select?
• No selection in the pristine world but just:
– physical and chemical actions and reactions
– cause-and-effects
– the production of complexities
• All the living things with a capacity to selection
Input Output
(but it has got to be right) Any living thing
• Many types of selection
– Sexual selection
– Group selection, population selection, or racial selection
– Trait selection in recruitment, commercial selection or breeding
• But Natural selection is like no other one or the selection
without a foresight

6. 1. Natural Selection, from inception to outcomes
• Natural selection takes place without a foresight
and without a plan
• There is a selective advantage for proliferation
for survival (known as there is safety in
numbers)
• When all the mutually exclusive entities
proliferate, they give rise to disorder (entropy)

7. 1. Where can we find natural selection?
• A hierarchy of possibilities
– In the natural world
– In the society and organisations
– In the world of technological products
– In the world of ideas, constructs, scientific
paradigms and systems
• But exactly where does natural
selection operate?

8. 1. Social Darwinism – “the survival of the fittest”
• Advocators: Herbert Spencer and others
• Acquired/inherited traits transmitted genetically!
– economic society was regarded as an arena
– men were competitors
– winners rewarded with survival, some with riches
– losers went to lions!
• Darwin was dead and no chance to express his views
• Dawkins says a “big no” to social Darwinism
• Who would say “yes” to such a madness?
– mad ones but some, Social Darwinism is a
– some ideologists, misnomer; experimented with
individual selection; nothing
– some with badly muddled intellect to do with natural selection;
• Where social Darwinism went wrong? neglected negative feedback
• The risk for such misconstruing is there if we fail to
understand the role of negative feedback

9. 2. Negative Feedback Loops
• Negative feedback: decrease differences
and thereby maintain a steady state
Balls fly out
as speed
increases,
Valve closes,
slowing engine
Steam Flyball
engine governor
Boulton-Watt steam engine -1788
http://www.heeg.de/~roland/SteamEngine.html

10. 2. History of Negative Feedback Loops (NFL)
• Patent Office for negative feedback:
– Patent holder: Mother Nature
– Address: the laboratory of Natural Selection
– Stakeholders: single cells
– Mechanism: a selective advantage of possible collaborations
between single cells
• The outcome:
– Animal and plant kingdom
– 100s and 1000s of sophisticated negative feedback loops
– Animal communities with communal negative feedback loops
– Emergence of man giving rise to technology and yet new NFL
– James Watt’s Flyball speed control governor- first NF mechanism

11. 2. What is a Negative Feedback Mechanism
• The Unit to be controlled
• Transmitter
• Controller
• Actuator
Controller
Controller
Negative Wedge
Prism Wedge
Actuator
Positive Wedge
Unit to be controlled
Controller
Transmitter

12. 2. Thousands of Examples
ESE

13. Reducing NFLs to their Building Blocks
• To establish a negative feedback loop:
1. We need sensors/measurements
2. We need “facts engine”
3. We need Actuators
• Put these 3 together, you get:
– emergent properties of performance criteria, or goal, purpose
– A capability to articulate the system
– These are a priori, i.e. specified in advance
• Information/data has a pronounced role
• Flow of information has directions

14. 2. Where do we find NFLs
• In the animal and plant kingdoms
• In the ecology of natural environments
• In social environments including morality
• In organisations including ethics
• In legal systems
• In technological products
• In science

15. 2. Where do we not find NFLs
• Where the the rule of jungle applies
• Man uses technology against other species
• In Social Darwinism
• In autocratic governance and dictatorships
• In classic capitalism and Soviet socialism
• In Judaic religions (except for fixed morality)
• In philosophy? Let us examine it.

16. 2. Utilitarianism
John Stuart Mill
Jeremy Bentham
• The tenets of utilitarianism:
– Actions are to be judged right or wrong by their consequences,
nothing else matters
– The only measure of consequences is happiness or unhappiness
– Each person’s happiness counts the same
• This philosophy was highly influential
• Completely ignored adverse impacts
• Now we are unselecting a great deal of impacts due to
utilitarian thinking
• This philosophy gave rise to change but has nothing to
say about evolutionary processes

17. 2. Positivism
• Comte’s positivism:
– Complexity is made up of matter and mind
– matter determinable and mind indeterminate
• Matter is determinable through science
categorised as:
– Sub-atomic physics: the science of elements with
intrinsic properties;
– Chemistry: the science of compound elements
with compounds having emergent chemical
properties absent in the elementary physics;
– Biology: outcomes of interacting compounds with
the emergent property of reproduction;
– Psychology: the science of biologically interacting
individuals with the emergent property of gaining a
consciousness of the environment;
– Sociology: the science of interacting individuals
with the emergent property of societies; and
– Anthropology: the science of interacting societies
with the emergent property of culture
• No explicit indication of evolution, other than
matter is determinable

18. 2. Realism
• To a realist,
– instead of matter or mind the emphasis is on
observable and unobservable phenomena
– both are regarded as real objects,
– they exist independent of perception
– they have properties and enter into relations
independent of concepts
• No explicit indication of evolution

19. 2. Existentialism
Søren Kierkegaard
• Existentialistic doctrine: Martin Heidegger
– inner world determinable and outer world indeterminate
– Only revered ones are revealed with an understanding of matter
– Apparently they save the mankind from a nihilist prospect
– The emphasis is on individuals, absence of a rational understanding of the
universe and a dread of absurdity in human life
• Nihilism: the outer world is in decline but revered individuals can
unravel so much from the indeterminate inner world to save the
mankind from a catastrophe
• Hiedegger: nihilism is standing at the door and spreading out
• I dare to say nihilism is a drive for change but quite sure they will refute
me by saying I do not understand them

20. 2. Hegelian-Marxian Dialectics
• Marx inverted and applied axiomatic Hegelian
doctrine of dialectics:
– interpenetration of the opposites (thesis and antithesis)
– negation of the negation (antagonism)
– transformation of quantity into quality (revolution)
• The transformation through revolution is violent
• This served as a model of change
• A complete lack of a mechanism for regulation
• Plenty of coercion

21. 2. Thomas Kuhn’s Paradigm shifts
• Kuhn’s doctrine of paradigms connects the
Marxian dialectics with Kantian constructivism
• Science is puzzle-solving with occasionally
identified anomalies (interpenetration of the opposites)
• Science needs a mechanism to maintain its
integrity and its dynamics (negation of the negation)
• Paradigm shifts: Kuhn did not condone
coercion nor science entertains such a
mechanism and therefore the transformation
is not by violent means but by consensus
(Kantian constructivism)
• Paradigm shifts is the nearest thing for
evolution in science

22. 2. Negative Feedback in Philosophy
• My search (also Google) ended in vain
• Karl Popper (1969) states that
– “It is part of my thesis that all our
knowledge grows through the correcting of
our mistakes. For example, what is called
today ‘negative feed back’ is only an
application of the general method of
learning from our mistakes – the method of
trial and error.”
• Popper is right but no philosopher seems to
have taken feedback any deeper!
• Exception: the philosophy of systems science

23. 2. Science: hinterland of Negative Feedback
• Selective advantage of negative
feedback was first recognised in the
Galilei’s thinking:
Do not take things on trust alone. The only
way to understand how something works is
to subject it to experiment; you must
experience it, see it for yourself.
Assumptions
Input Output
A scientific System
Theorisation Observations
• Attributes of NFLs in Reductive science:
– Negative feedback is the key to scientific
objectivity Predictions
– Negative feedback triggers the right to challenge
– Negative feedback creates internal coherence
Decision for reviews
within a system

24. 2. Fact Engines for Negative Feedback Loops
SENSING
hind wing
gyroscopes
neural (halteres)
• Brains have soft computing superposition
eyes
capabilities using fuzzy logic
as their decision engine specialized two wings
“power” (di-ptera)
muscles
• Diversity of manmade fuzzy ACTUATION
logic fact engines COMPUTATION
~500,000 neurons
• Others use sophisticated
mathematical models
But now we are discovering the dimension of
uncertainty. i.e. all decisions after NFLs are still
some sort of trial-and-error, just like the
machinery of natural selection but much faster!

25. 2-3 What happened to Reductive Science?
• “Utilitarian philosophers” unwittingly
hijacked reductive science and gave rise:
Population rise
Mounting wastes and pollution,
Greenhouse gases
The Ozone layer
Climate change
• Systems science is the birthplace of explicit concept of
negative feedback
• It rescued science by making the way to sustainable
development
• Ludwig von Bertallanffy’s General Theory of Systems
(GST) was a great help but failed to fulfilled its
promises, why?

26. The Transition Milestones
“Laplace's Demon”: the past completely determines the
future no chance, no choice, and no uncertainty — has been
traced back to Socrates
Pierre Simon Laplace
Max Planck: “the principles of conservation of energy does
not suffice for a unique determination of natural processes.”
The 2nd law of thermodynamics describes the processes
from the initial to final states by referring to dissipated and
unrecoverable internal energy (entropy).
Max Planck (1858-47)
Heisenberg: In the atomic scale, it is impossible to
determine simultaneously both the position and velocity of an
electron
Current modelling paradigm has also discovered Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976)
uncertainty at our normal scale and encourages decision-
making in an uncertain background

27. 3. An Emerging philosophy for NFL?
• Bertallanffy’s General Systems Theory (GTS) –1941
• Promoted GTS with the aims of:
– Transferring knowledge by investigating isomorphy of concepts
– Developing adequate theoretical models
– Eliminating duplications in different fields
– Promoting the unity of science Ludwig von Bertallanffy (1901-72)
• He articulated the role of entropy and information:
– closed systems: tend to move toward random state or
increasing disorder
– open systems: open internally in relation to themselves and
externally in relation to the environment
– social systems: other possibilities …
• Schrödinger: living organisms feed on negative entropy,
i.e. information
Schrödinger
Checkland: (1) GST pays for generality with lack of content,
(2) Doubts if information = negative entropy
But he is a leading figure in systems thinking

28. 3. Let us let the stock of the knowledge available:
• The law of natural selection is an undisputed
explanation for mutually exclusive entities
• Its application to society was disastrous due to
ignoring existing negative feedback loops
• A great deal is understood on the operation of
negative feedback in mutually inclusive entities
• But the current knowledge is not putting the
emergence of NFLs in the timeline after the Law
of Natural Selection
• Is there a timeline for both?

29. 3. Overview of the Evolutionary Timeline
• The evolution led to the emergence of man 100,000-
140,000 years ago
• Man’s facts engine perceived the selective of a diversity
new techniques: association, reason, observation, cooperation, telling a lie,
coercion, deception
• Association, reason and observation stand out for
helping form the cognitive faculty
• The selective advantage of negative feedback emerged
in 1500 through reductive science and diversifying since
then but this gave rise to entropy
• The selective advantage of reducing the entropy
produced by reductive science is being dealt with by
systems science since 1940 AND NOW with the
foresight of sustainable development

30. Detailed Timeline
• Complexities: organised hierarchically
• Lower Hierarchies: evolve:-
– Closed systems: Lifeless complexities emerged through cause-and-effect interactions by
chance
– Life emerged by interacting complexities with the emergent properties of reproduction
– Cultures of primitive living things reproduced as long as their inputs were sufficient, true to
the statement in the Matrix film
– Gene pool and mutation: two mechanisms are there and are engine of variations
– Cooperation: There was a selective advantage for cooperation among primitive living cells
• Higher Hierarchies: cooperating primitive living cells evolved
– Open Systems: There was a selective advantage for specialisation of the cells through a
centralised control system of cells, where the control was through negative feedback
mechanisms
– There was a selective advantage for the emergence of negative feedback to respond to the
environment by exploiting information
– Individuality and communality: There was a selective advantage for both self-interests
and communal life and both emerged and evolved in a variety of forms
• Diversification and punctuated events made up history until the arrival of the mankind
• A few evolutionary changes in the biology of the mankind gave rise to language and
technology
• Man was not much different from other species until, say, 10000 years ago
• Since then settled way of life had a profound effect on the evolution of cultural life
• Since then, the selective advantage of association, reason, observation, cooperation,
telling a lie, coercion, deception … has emerged among the mankind
• The selective advantage of morality prevailed in social life, in the form negative
feedback against very obvious harmful eefects of killing, steeling, telling a lie …
• Science was born in the form of negative feedback and data in reasoning by Galilei

31. 3. The Evolution in Science
No Science yet Society
Input Output
Open Loop
e.g. Philosophy driven by reason
Religion driven by faith
Reductive Science Input Output Society
Internally Closed Loop
Externally Open Loop
Systems Science Society
Input Output
Internally Closed Loop
Externally Open Loop
Input Output
Science Multi-loop Architecture

32. 4. Where are we now?
• NFL is not a panacea but can lead to stagnation, e.g. religions and
Nietsche’s attack on Christianity
• Speed of propagation increases from the slow scale of natural
selection to the fast scale of avian/swine flu
• When many systems converge, risks transform from extensive to
extensive-and-intensive scales – the emergence of systemic risk
• Interactions of two systems can be regular but subject to some
uncertainties, whereas interactions of many systems can be subject
to chaos and catastrophic changes
• Should we not slow the pace of our so called progress?
• Are we driven by NFLs or by natural selection or by social
Darwinists?