AUTOPOIESIS AND SUPRAHUMAN SYSTEMS

Autopoietic systems are self-defining and real-world entities of a natural kind. They are subject to natural laws. It is suggested that the theory of emergence and the law of maximum entropy production relate to, and may be predictive of, the emergence, development, and evolution of autopoietic entities, including supra-human systems. Not to be confused with institutionalized categories such as family, corporation, nation, etc., autopoietic supra-human systems are irreducible entities of a different order from the mutually causal interactions, conversations and compliances, that produce them and are inaccessible at the level from which they emerge. The energy driving the emergence of supra-human systems is the human lifetime locked up in autopoietic organization and ultimately dispersed. thus maximizing entropy production in the social domain. The possibly dire effects on the human state are considered. This hypothesis justifies closing the gap between the natural and social sciences under the rubric of general systems studies.