Synergetics, Self-Simplification, and the Ability to Undo

Abstract

It is argued that Bernstein created a coherent science of biological movement. He failed, however, to completely escape mechanicism. Haken’s synergetics is interpreted as the science which can solve that problem: order arises stochastically as self-simplification, i.e., the macroscopic reduction of microscopic degrees of freedom. Synergetics has been successfully applied to biological movement. In the present paper, two further steps in that process are outlined. Since biological self-simplification is not only behavioural but also structural, it is firstly argued that differential perturbation resistance will be met upon probing structure. The most perturbation resistant layers are the ones that embody self-simplification. Two examples are given from the neurosciences. Secondly, the exact determination of the control landscape is often difficult, the more so since transitions look different at different levels. But the creating of transitions requires surplus-energy, and energy can be measured. A line of thinking is sketched, in which Parkinsonism is understood as the inability to create transitions, or, in other words, as lacking the ability to undo. At the end, one is left with more questions than answers. Maybe, however, the questions have become mom interesting.