The Complex Relations between Organization and Disorganization and Their Conceptual System

For improving and developing self-organization theory in contemporary complex information systems theory, it is necessary to reinterpret related concepts and their relations and construct a conceptual system related to self-organization theory. Based on the latest research results, this article specifically discusses concepts of organization and disorganization, static organization and dynamic organization, static disorganization and dynamic disorganization, organizing and disorganizing, self-organization and other-organization, self-disorganization and other-disorganization, and their relations. Further, it explores the mechanism of organization and disorganization, the compatibility of organization and disorganization, feedback and mutual other-disorganization in interaction, constraint and freedom of organization and disorganization, complexity of restraint and external factors, and relations between “the good” and “the evil” in restraint and freedom. On this basis, a diagram of the conceptual system of organization and disorganization, including four levels and their relations, is presented.

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

This article briefly chronicles the author’s history with ICHRIE and offers insight into what the future may hold for this dynamic organization.

Anthropogenic Transformation of the Vegetation in the Areas of Environmental Contact Zones of the South-Western Trans-Baikal

While performing studies we imposed the tasks to reveal general (background) characteristics of structural-dynamic organization of the vegetation and to find out the peculiarities of formation of phytocoenoses on the sites reflecting the specifics and trends of their modern formation under anthropogenic impact, such as fires, cutting and pasturage during several decades. The studied area is situated in the transitional zone between the forest-steppe and zonal steppes characteristic for South-East Asia – i.e., in an interzonal ecotone. An interzonal ecotone consists of coenoses forming under transitional environmental conditions, in this case – between forest-steppe and steppe areas of North and Central Asia. Main attention was paid to the characteristics of the actual state of phytocoenoses forming under different conditions of their recent destructions; species composition of synfolia and the most characteristic proxy species determining the actual state and the vector of formation of steppe coenoses and forests during last decades were studied with a particular attention. While analyzing the data obtained, we took into account as well the characteristics of the vegetation structure in the studied area presented in published papers of numerous researchers for many years. The results of general studies of the Baikal Region vegetation were also taken into account. The interzonal ecotone itself including the area of our studies always reflects spatial-dynamic organization of vegetation in the environmental zones in time and space. Anthropogenic factors are increase of the spatial and structural difference of the plant communities of the environmental contact all time.

Anthropogenic Transformation of the Vegetation in the Areas of Environmental Contact Zones of the South-Western Trans-Baikal

While performing studies we imposed the tasks to reveal general (background) characteristics of structural-dynamic organization of the vegetation and to find out the peculiarities of formation of phytocoenoses on the sites reflecting the specifics and trends of their modern formation under anthropogenic impact, such as fires, cutting and pasturage during several decades. The studied area is situated in the transitional zone between the forest-steppe and zonal steppes characteristic for South-East Asia – i.e., in an interzonal ecotone. An interzonal ecotone consists of coenoses forming under transitional environmental conditions, in this case – between forest-steppe and steppe areas of North and Central Asia. Main attention was paid to the characteristics of the actual state of phytocoenoses forming under different conditions of their recent destructions; species composition of synfolia and the most characteristic proxy species determining the actual state and the vector of formation of steppe coenoses and forests during last decades were studied with a particular attention. While analyzing the data obtained, we took into account as well the characteristics of the vegetation structure in the studied area presented in published papers of numerous researchers for many years. The results of general studies of the Baikal Region vegetation were also taken into account. The interzonal ecotone itself including the area of our studies always reflects spatial-dynamic organization of vegetation in the environmental zones in time and space. Anthropogenic factors are increase of the spatial and structural difference of the plant communities of the environmental contact all time.

Semiopoesis: Formation of Meaning in Molecular Genetics and Biosemiotics

The article develops the idea of Yu. S. Stepanov (1971) that meaning is not an exclusive property of sign systems used by man, and it is present in biosystems. We consider it as one of the specific forms of manifestation of autopoiesis, namely, establishing interconnections between two systems, one of which is used for the other, either a plane of expression or a plane of content. This specification concerning the genetic code has already been named as codopoiesis (M. Barbieri, 2012). We introduce the new term, “semiopoiesis”, since it relies upon sign systems in general. From this point of view, the genetic code’s evolution can be viewed as a process of semiopoiesis – semiosis in its emerging. The increasing complexity of the organization leads to the autonomy of information and semiotic principles. Semiopoiesis, a complex of recursive self-referential operations of a semiotic system, becomes a form of the bio-world's dynamic organization when categories of meaning and purpose appear and become defining in it.

Exploring the Dynamic Organization of Random and Evolved Boolean Networks

The properties of most systems composed of many interacting elements are neither determined by the topology of the interaction network alone, nor by the dynamical laws in isolation. Rather, they are the outcome of the interplay between topology and dynamics. In this paper, we consider four different types of systems with critical dynamic regime and with increasingly complex dynamical organization (loosely defined as the emergent property of the interactions between topology and dynamics) and analyze them from a structural and dynamic point of view. A first noteworthy result, previously hypothesized but never quantified so far, is that the topology per se induces a notable increase in dynamic organization. A second observation is that evolution does not change dramatically the size distribution of the present dynamic groups, so it seems that it keeps track of the already present organization induced by the topology. Finally, and similarly to what happens in other applications of evolutionary algorithms, the types of dynamic changes strongly depend upon the used fitness function.