What is autopoiesis?
According to author Peter Belohlavek, in the book The Unicist Ontology of Evolution, Autopoiesis is defined as self-production which is derived from a combination of Greek words, auto which means self, poiesis which means formation or making. Autopoiesis was first presented as a way of talking about and understanding living systems. For some there is a natural progression from the living system, or organisms to God in terms of the ongoing process of creation. On a personal level autopoiesis is symbolic of creation of love, wealth, and prosperity during one’s lifetime. The process of autopoiesis, involves all beings in the environment or Earth existing with the purpose of furthering existence put plainly we all exist to continue the existence of others and the environment. This concept was developed from biology in terms of observed behaviors of plants, and cells and has be extrapolated to be representative of sociology, and philosophy.
What purpose does the concept of autopoiesis serve?
The process of autopoiesis should make you think about the interconnectedness of all life, especially when considering how this process can be used to design self-sustaining systems. Autopoiesis provides the outline for the manner in which an entity exists through its physical and chemical processes, and the purpose these serve for continued existence of the entity and other things in the environment. For example, the cell is thought to be initial level of autopoiesis. When observing cells it can be seen that each cell acts to preserve its self-production via interactions with other cells around it. Once autopoiesis is understood at the cellular level you can then begin to witness this process within nature with the plants and animals. It is here that language and symbolism come to the forefront and the autopoiesis here takes place largely in these realms. Imagine what this should mean for humans, there would be significantly less egocentric behaviors resulting in an attitude of solitary. Understanding autopoiesis, is an important aspect of understanding human existence in which we understand that all that we see and know is just an extension or result of the process of autopoiesis on the cellular level.
