11 - A systemic approach to the origin of biological organization

Abstract

The explanation of biological systems requires many different principles: physical and chemical laws, self-organization, and even informational constraints. The process by which living organization originated may probably be a sequence of different forms of organization, progressing from relatively simple to more complex stages. In a general sense, the term organization means the activity (or result) of distributing or disposing a set of elements properly or methodically. Namely, in an organization, there is a nonrandom arrangement of parts, generally serving a purpose or function. A process of exploration of new organizational forms and retention of the functional ones leads to progressively more complex organizations. As this process takes place in a chemical scenario, the increase in complexity of the systems creates an accumulative process of construction of bigger and more complex components, which in turn are the necessary elements for the creation of more complex organizations. Therefore, only those autonomous systems that developed specific mechanisms to stabilize and retain the increasing structural and organizational complexity with a fairly high degree of reliability could begin to unfold new and subsequent levels of complexity and, furthermore, set up the first pillars to ensure their long-term maintenance.