Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Now while there is absolutely no doubt about Prigogine's description
and mathematical modelling of the phenomenon, its conceptualisa-
tion and generalisation are very problematical. The experimental
phenomenon, that is to say the formation of convection cells, has to
be clearly distinguished here from the theorisation about it in the
context of self-organisation. As Prigogine himself explains, the phe-
nomenon of organisation depends on a temperature gradient which
is an external constraint imposed on the system. Consequently,
“
Bénard cells, like all dissipative structures, are essentially a reflec-
tion of the
global situation
28
of non equilibrium producing them
”
(OOC pp. 143-144). We must insist on this point, as it is impor-
tant and leads many researchers astray: the external global con-
straint involved here belongs to the reality of the phenomenon.
Is it right in these conditions to use the concept of self-organisation
to describe this reality? There is a flagrant contradiction here
between the phenomenon described and its conceptualisation.
It would be more exact to speak of hetero-organisation to indicate
the fact that the system is organised under the effect of the con-
straint arising from the environment. The organisation produced
depends on this constraint and not on a phenomenon of sponta-
neous emergence from the components of the system. Bénard's
instability is no exception. Other biological systems alleged to be
self-organising are in actual fact determined by constraints, as is
particularly the case of the organisation of colonies of social insects,
which is often given as an example but which depends in reality on
environmental factors, especially the substrate sources which feed
the colony (Camazine
et al.
, 2003).
Finally, theories of self-organisation are subject to another con-
fusion that needs to be elucidated. They are often assimilated into
probabilistic theories. Now while there is indeed a random event,
fluctuation, in dissipative processes, which introduces a degree of
uncertainty, it is only involved as an event triggering a deterministic
dynamic. Dissipative mechanisms are not therefore intrinsically prob-
abilistic but are deterministic with noise (see chapter 2, §2.2.4).
28
Original text not in bold.
