How cybernetics explains tensegrity in creatures and its advantages for organizations

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Shann Turnbull* PhD

Presented October 7^th to 17th Hellenic Society for Systemic Studies (HSSS) National & International Conference, joined organized with the 11th European Union for Systemics (EUS) International Congress

Keynote presentation 7:45 – 8:15 pm, Sydney time, 2021

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*Principal: International Institute for Self-governance

PO Box 266, Woollahra, Sydney Australia

Cell: + 61 (0) 418 222 378; sturnbull@alumni.harvard.edu

Abstract

This paper explains the crucial role of the dual paradoxical contrary ~ complementary properties of tensegrity. It is a neglected phenomenon in understanding how living things and their social organizations become self-regulating, self-managing and self-governing.

Tensegrity is identified as a defining feature in the architecture of nature that drives evolution.

Corporations that include tensegrity into the polycentric self-governing processes identified by Ostrom create a way for citizens to sustainably self-govern their host bioregions for the global common-good.

This requires system scientists working with social scientists in educating students to become governance architects to custom design ecological corporations accordingly to their location and activities.

Research opportunities are identified in testing six hypotheses that include fundamental aspects of the universe.

Buckminster Fuller (1961) combined the words “Tension” and “Integrity” to create the word: “Tensegrity” to describe the design principles of Kenneth Snelson sculptures and of geodesic domes. Fuller could have used the word “Antinomy” used by Fritz Schumacher (1975: 209) in describing how to design efficient large organisations: “All human problems arise from the antimony of order and freedom.”

Dee Hock (1995), the founding CEO of VISA Inc. in 1970 combined the words “Chaos” and “Order” to create the word “Chaordic” to describe its organisational design principle. His words describe tensegrity.

Shann Turnbull (2000) pioneered in his PhD Thesis the use of the word “Tensegrity” as a design principle for self-governing organisations with more than one board.

Origin of the word Tensegrity and its synonyms -1

Donald Ingber (1998), a cell biologist, described Tensegrity” as the “The architecture of life”. Ingber identifies how biological structures self-assemble greater complexity from simpler sub-systems and their sub-sub-systems. A process described by Simon (1962).

Neurologists Kelso & Engstrøm (2006) introduced the tilde “~” symbol to indicate contrary ~ complementary communication and control circuits in our brains but they did not use the word Tensegrity. However, the cover of their book featured the Yin ~ Yang symbol that represents “a concept of dualism: describing how obviously opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected and interdependent forces in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other as the relate to each other.” [Sounds like first & only order of cybernetics)

Origin of the word Tensegrity and its synonyms - 2

Systemic data operating problems of hierarchical organizations

1. Data over-load by centralized decision-makers without error correction mechanisms that leads to the delegation and the implementation of decisions to subordinate levels to form a hierarchy with additional problems outlined below:
2. Data losses, biases and distortions from subordinate level feedback without error correction processes (Shannon 1948);
3. Discretional interpretation by subordinates in determining the details on how to implement superior level communications without error correction processes (Ashby 1956);
4. No systemic external feedback channels to detect mismanagement, misconduct and malfeasance independently of those responsible.

Behavioral operating “toxic” (Carucci 2018) problems of hierarchical organizations

1. Centralized decision-making introduces absolute power for the decision-making individuals to identify and manage their own conflicts of interest to corrupt themselves, their organization, its stakeholders and society (Acton et al. 1985);
2. Blind obedience to authority by subordinates creating “groupthink” (Fink 2018) to deny adequate variety of reliable feedback;
3. Excess exploitation of subordinates to alienate them as loyal cooperators and so unreliable communication and/or control agents;
4. Behavioral tensegrity by employees and/or agents is suppressed, inhibited, prohibited and/or punished to frustrate discovery of superior operating processes;
5. Behavioral tensegrity by the organization is denied to frustrate identifying novel ways to adjust to dynamic complex environments.

Alternatives forms of organizations to hierarchies

(and individuals in partnerships and/or joint ventures)

��Tensegrity is hard wired by DNA into living systems�It creates a “requisite variety” of behaviour to survive birth, grow and to reproduce in unknowable complex dynamic environments��

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Kelso, J. A. S. & Engstrøm. D. A. (2006) The Complementary Nature, Cambridge, MA, MIT Press (Introduced the tilde “~” symbol to show the interdependency between complementary ~ contrary relationships)

Buckminster Fuller described contrary relationships in materials as “Tensegrity” by combining “Tensional Integrity” It allows his geodesic domes to cover the greatest area with the least use of materials

Complementary nature indicated in the Yin ~ Yang relationships shown on the book cover

��Tensional Integrity (Tensegrity) illustrated by:���

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Inber, D. E. (1998) ‘The architecture of life’, Scientific American, pp. 30-39, January.

Nature’s complexity by cell biologist Donald Ingber

Australian Indigenous complexity of

Kurilpa Brisbane river bridge is supported by tenesgrity

Tensegrity structures are self-regulating:

Allowing them to become self-managing with the possibility of becoming self-governing

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Exerting force on the structure will change its shape to trigger both compensating forces to regain its shape while its new shape, in biological systems, changes its operating functions in the system of which it is a component and so the nature of the behaviour of the larger system.

Energy minimized

Energy stored and equally shared with memory of past shape

“Impossible” chair

Commercially sold

Stone in compression

Conventional bridges use only a single feature of material to support spans

Steel cables in tension

Convict built 1823 Richmond Bridge

Cataract Gorge Launceston 1940

Australian bridges in Tasmania

Tensegrity structures span the greatest distance with the least materials

Behavioural tensegrity generates requisite variety of responses to survive complex environments

The architecture of complexity: Holons and Holarchies

Ingber (1998) did not use the word “Holon” or “Holarchy to describe how complexity of life was constructed from simpler sub-components and sub-sub-components.

Ingber identified how self-assembly was dependent upon components possessing tensegrity at all scales from: atoms, molecules, organelles, cells, tissues, organs and individuals. The architecture of each self-regulating, self-managing and self-governing components was replicated in the creatures created. The 206 bones in human bodies resit the compressive force of gravity with the tensions created by muscles, tendons, and ligaments.

Arthur Koestler (1967) used the word “Holon” to describe each “component” and groups of such “component” Holons as a “Holarchy”. “Every Holon expresses contradictory tendencies” .

John Mathews (1996) identified duality is a defining feature of a holons, but he never used the word “Tensegrity”. Like:

Jan Smuts (1928) Koestler noted “every thing in nature is both a whole and part”.

Herbert Simon (1962) was describing Holons when referring to a "sub-assemble”, "stable intermediate form”, "able to maintain a separate existence”.

Tensegrity drives changes in functions and behaviour

There are two types of tensegrity structures that provide “a maximum of strength for a given about of building material” (Ingber 1968):

• Geodestic domes constructed with struts that accept both compressive and tensile forces that are communicated and so shared throughout the whole structure.
• Pre-stressed structures created from materials that can only accept tension being subjected to stress by being connected to struts that then become subjected to compression. In this way a stable geometry is established that can be distorted by external forces but seeks to return to its original shape. The structure obtains memory and becomes self-correcting and so self-regulating allowing self-management and possibly self-governance if it possess sufficient variety of responses to survive environmental risks.

Ingber explained how the function of cells was controlled by changes in their shape from external sources. Changing the shape of cells switched different genetic programs to different degrees. In this way external stimuli could orchestrate processes of self-assemble of new arrangements to accommodate survival according to the nature of the external signals. Ingber identified the DNA helical molecule as a tensegrity structure subjected to such processes of shape changing its functions.

Tensegrity creates variety to drive evolution

Ashby (1956: 270) states: “The gene-pattern, as a store of channel of variety, has limited capacity. Survival goes especially to those species that use the capacity efficiently”. This indicates the need for living things to minimise the materials and/or energy required to transact bytes/data for living things to be created, survive birth, thrive and reproduce in unknowable dynamic complex environment.

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The ability of gene-pattern to guide behavior can arise from direct programming, and/or by the more efficient process of “amplification”. Ashby (1956: 244) explains how amplification of control is only possible indirectly through supplementary sources of variety provided by the environment

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Kelso & Engstrøm (2006) reported: “Experiments show that the human brain is capable of displaying two apparently contradictory, mutually exclusive behaviors at the same time”. (i.e. exhibits tensegrity)

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Tensegrity removes the need for different orders of cybernetics

Newtons third law of motion states that any action has an equal and opposite reaction. This is another way of stating that the process of observing something will change what is being observed. So why use the previous sentence to create a different order of cybernetics when it is part of nature? Second order cybernetics becomes a social construct to explain Tensegrity. In other words tensegrity represents a new sort “of phenomena: indeed those that will not fit in the box are often not seen at all”. (Kuhn 1970:24)

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The paradox of tensegrity is inherent in nature. Light can be described as energy in the form of particles called photons and/or waves. Particles also represent energy equal to its mass times the speed of light squared (=mc²). All 92 natural elements emerge from three components with two possessing contrary charges. Because elements possessing contrary characteristics of tensegrity they can create vast numbers of molecules to generate the complexity of life.

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This mean that it is tensegrity that drives physical and living evolution.

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Ingber points out that cells, that represent a holon, can “observe” forces that changes their behaviour to generate a variety responses than could switch the way their holarchy responds.

Hypothesis I

Hypothesis 1. Tensegrity creates a requisite variety of both instinctive and learned behaviours for living things to survive their creation and to reproduce in dynamic unknowable complex environments while minimizing the material and energy required in their DNA.

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The human brain vividly illustrates the physical demands of data processing. While the weight of matter in the brain is less than 2% of the total body weight, the amount of energy is ten times greater being 20% of the total used by the body even at rest (Physics 2001). The energy used by different parts of the brain varies according to how important the data channel is for survival (Brain Facts 2019).

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Hypothesis II

1. Centralized decision-making introduces absolute power for the decision-making individuals to identify and manage their own conflicts of interest to corrupt their organization, its stakeholders and society (Acton et al. 1985);
2. Blind obedience to authority by subordinates creating groupthink to deny adequate variety of reliable feedback;
3. Excess exploitation of subordinates and abuses alienates them as loyal cooperators and so reliable communication and/or control agents;
4. Behavioral tensegrity by employees and/or agents is suppressed, inhibited, prohibited and/or punished to frustrate discovery of superior operating processes;
5. Behavioral tensegrity by the organization is denied to frustrate identifying novel ways to adjust to dynamic complex environments.

Hypothesis 2: Tensegrity is frustrated, denied and/or excluded in centralised command and controlled hierarchies that become systemically subjected to “Group think” (Fink 2018) so as to reduce the ability of the organisation to become self-regulating, self-managing and/or self-governing like living things.

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Hypothesis 4. For evolution to be maintained, new emerging entities or phenomena need to reproduce the dual paradoxical features of tensegrity to generate a requisite variety of novel conditions to arise in different contexts for the process of evolution to continue.

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Hypothesis 5. Evolution could not have commenced unless tensegrity emerged with time with both becoming embedded in all matter and energy.

Hypothesis 6. The disappearance of time with its paradoxical dual complementary phenomenon of tensegrity is revealed by evidence of dark matter and energy also existing.

Hypothesis III, IV, V. VI

Hypothesis 3: Tensegrity is required in social organisations to provide a requisite variety crosschecking decision-making, communication and control facilities to reliably and comprehensively identify and control internal and/or external risks, threats and opportunities to its existence.

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Thank you for your attention

Your feedback (of any order) is invited

My contacts are:

shann.turnbull@gmail.com

and/or at Cell: +61 (0) 418 222 378