Self-producing systems: Implications and applications of autopoiesis

In Self-Producing Systems: Implications and Applications of Autopoiesis, John Mingers takes stock of a concept that started in biology and spread into many other fields. Autopoiesis, as developed by Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, describes living systems as self-producing: organizations that continuously generate their own components through their own operations. Mingers traces how this idea took shape, from the organization of the nervous system and the emergence of language to more contested philosophical questions about the observer. The bulk of the book then surveys how autopoiesis has been picked up and adapted outside biology, including its use in describing social systems and law as self-producing orders, its application in family therapy, and its relevance to cognitive science, artificial intelligence and information systems, while weighing how far a biological concept can be stretched before it loses its explanatory force. Credits: Mingers, J. (1995). Self-producing systems: Implications and applications of autopoiesis. Nueva York: Plenum Press.