The generation of meaning and preservation of identity in complex adaptive systems: the LIPHE4 Criteria

This paper combines an interdisciplinary set of concepts and ideas to explore the interface between complexity science and biosemiotics and to describe the processes of generation of meaning and preservation of identity in complex adaptive systems. The concepts and ideas used include: (i) holons (from hierarchy theory); (ii) the state-pressure relation (from non-equilibrium thermodynamics); (iii) the four Aristotelean causes (as used in relational biology); and (iv) upward and downward causation. Further insights from other disciplines, including biosemiotics, cybernetics, codepoiesis, theoretical ecology, energetics, and bioeconomics, are also borrowed to explore the mechanisms underlying the organizational unity of the various processes leading to a resonance between the tangible and notional definitions of identity. An original set of criteria, to be used for the characterization of this organizational unity, is then put forward: Learning Instances Producing Holarchic Essences: Expected, Established, and Experienced (LIPHE4). The LIPHE4 criteria help explain how complex adaptive systems can remain the same (preserve their identity) while becoming something else (evolve) and succeed even while implementing imperfect models to guide action.