The analogy between society as a complex control system consisting of individuals and an organism as a complex control system consisting of cells is made more explicit in the tables below. The tables list general functions characterizing all "living" or "autopoietic" systems, and for each function gives the corresponding subsystem in an organism and in society. The functions are loosely based on the 20 critical subsystems proposed by James Miller in his Living Systems Theory, although I have left out some of the less important ones (e.g. timer), and added a few which seemed missing in Miller's list (e.g. "Immune System", "Energy carrier"). I have also renamed some functions to more traditional system terms (e.g. "sensor" instead of "input transducer"). I hope that the below correspondence shows that the "superorganism" model of human society is more than a vague metaphor, but rather an accurate framework for analysing the collectivity as a living system in its own right.
Example |
Organism
|
Society
|
Units
|
Cells
|
People
|
Differentiation
|
Tissue
types
|
Division
of labor
|
Subsystems
|
Organs
|
Organizations
|
Boundary
|
Skin
|
Walls,
Covers, ...
|
Defenses
|
Immune
system
|
Army,
Police
|
Example |
Organism
|
Society
|
Ingestor
|
eating,
drinking, inhaling
|
mining,
harvesting, pumping
|
Converter
|
digestive
system, lungs
|
refineries,
processing plants
|
Distributor
|
blood
circuit
|
transport
networks
|
Energy
carrier
|
hemoglobin,
ATP
|
oil,
electricity
|
Producer
|
cell
growth
|
factories,
builders
|
Extruder
|
urine
excretion, defecation
|
waste
disposal, sewers, chimneys
|
Storage
|
fat,
bones
|
warehouses,
containers
|
Support
|
skeleton
|
buildings,
bridges...
|
Motor
|
muscles
|
machines,
people, animals
|
Example |
Organism
|
Society
|
Sensor
|
sensory
organs
|
reporters,
researchers
|
Decoder
|
perception
|
experts,
politicians, public opinion
|
Channel
and Net
|
nerves,
neurons
|
communication
media
|
Associator
|
synaptic
learning
|
scientific
discovery, social learning
|
Memory
|
neural
memory
|
libraries,
collective knowledge
|
Decider
|
higher
brain functions
|
government,
market, voters
|
Effector
|
nerves
activating muscles
|
executives
|
Mis à jour le 01/04/2016 pratclif.com