Emergence and Growth of Knowledge and Diversity in Hierarchically Complex Organised Systems: Genesis of a theoretical framework

EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY OF SPECIES AND ORGANIZATIONS http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/ Personal Research William P. Hall National Fellow Australian Centre for Science, Innovation and Society - University of Melbourne DIS: ICT 5.39 - 8344 1522 Head Office / Engineering Tenix Defence, Williamstown [email protected]

Visiting Faculty Associate University of Technology Sydney

Dept Info Sci - 13/10/2006

Some background

  

My path to organisational KM is unique

– physics (3½ years from 1957) – computers (all generations from cog-wheel calculators) – neurophysiology (2+ years as research assistant - signal processing) – comparative ethology, comparative anatomy and ecosystem theory – PhD Evolutionary Biology (Harvard, 1973) - genetic system, systematics – personal KM in the sciences with bibliographic search engines – studied epistemology and scientific revolutions (1977-1979) – I bought my first microcomputer in 1981 and it had to pay for itself – 1980's: computer literacy journalism, software tech writing, and documenting Hogan banking systems With Tenix Defence since Jan 1990 – full life of the ANZAC Ship Project -

On time, on budget, all the time

– building content authoring/management systems – now working on cross divisional knowledge management solutions

This gives me some different perspectives!

Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

The work summarised here began ~1977 in response to paradigmatic misunderstandings over my PhD

     PhD Evol. Biol. Harvard 1973 University of Melbourne Research Fellow in Genetics 77-78 – Problems with reviewers of papers following my PhD led to studies in epistemology and history and philosophy of science Worked with computers since 1981; Tenix Defence since Jan 1990 Technical writers' holy wars in 2000 over content oriented vs page oriented writing & management led to book project – Co-evolution of cognitive tools and human cognition – When I got to KM organisations I found my understanding of "knowledge" differed from what my peers thought it was – Had to stop writing until I understood the difference Solution re-formulates org theory and KM on evolutionary principles – Reformulation now well underway with peer-reviewed published papers – I am also reinventing the theory of life itself • theory of self-organizing hierarchically complex dissipative systems • evolutionary epistemology • autopoiesis Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

KM is a mess in several other areas as well with too many poorly understood paradigms

    Epistemology (theory of knowledge) – personal knowledge (Michael Polanyi) – objective knowledge (Karl Popper) Organization theory (Donaldson recognises 15 paradigms) – resource view – environment view – autopoietic view How to analyse knowledge in the organization – individual view – social view – critical view – alternative views How organizations create knowledge – cognitivist view – connectionist view – autopoietic view Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/ Donaldson, L. 1995. American Anti-Management Theones of Organization, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press – see also McKelvey, B. 1997. Quasi-natural organization science. Organization Science 8:352-380

Foundation Problems in KM: We can’t even define knowledge consistently



A few definitions from the literature

Author(s) Wiig (1993) Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) Spek and Spijkervet (1997) Davenport (1997) Davenport and Prusak (1998) Quigley and Debons (1999) * Choo et al. (2000) Data Not yet interpreted symbols Simple observations A set of descrete facts Text that does not answer questions to a particular problem Facts and messages Information Facts organised to describe a situation or condition A flow of meaningful messages Data with meaning Data with relevance and purpose A message meant to change the receiver’s perception Text that answers the questions who, when, what, or where Data vested with meaning

Knowledge Truths and beliefs, perspectives and concepts, judgements and expectations, methodologies and know how Commitments and beliefs created from these messages The ability to assign meaning Valuable information from the human mind Experiences, values, insights, and contextual information Text that answers the questions why and how Justified, true beliefs

Stenmark, D. 2002. Information vs. Knowledge: The Role of intranets in Knowledge Management . In Proceedings of HICSS-35, Hawaii, January 7-10, 2002 * * Full text free to the web Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

Conflicting paradigms of knowledge in KM

  Michael Polanyi (1958, 1966): personal/tacit knowledge – Focus • knowing subjects • knowledge of doing, personal skills •

belief, faith and intuition final arbiters of "truth"

• followers tend to denigrate explicit knowledge to mere "information" – Popularised in KM and organization theory by Nelson & Winter, Sveiby, Nonaka, von Krogh & Roos Popper (1972): epistemology without a knowing subject – Knowledge grows through conjecture & refutation, i.e., criticism against reality – Different kinds of knowledge: • Subjective or dispositional – as embodied in instantaneous structure • Persistent or objective – in codified form – Joe Firestone of Macroinnovation Associates one of few KM practitioners using Popperian epistemology Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

Incommensurability of the paradigms

      Search dates: 11/02/2002, (15/08/2002), [14/07/2004] Michael Polanyi "Personal Knowledge" – Google hits = 1,760 (1,450) [4,040] Karl Popper "Objective Knowledge“ – Google hits = 1,850 (1,570) [3,730] Both together – Google hits = 64 (55) [88] Only 1.1% of authors citing either book cited both!

Conclusion –

Writers concerned with one author's thinking were not interested in or could not cope with discussing the other author's thinking in the same document - even to the extent of listing them in a single bibliography.

Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

Key ideas for answering “What is knowledge?”

    Evolutionary biology and evolutionary epistemology – J.D. Watson & Francis Crick (molecular genetics) – Ernst Mayr (was still writing in his 100 th year), Steven J. Gould – Donald T. Campbell – Karl Popper’s mature epistemology: 1972 and later – published in his 70 th year Autopoiesis (auto = ‘self’ + poiesis = ‘production’) – Humberto Maturana & Francisco Varela • Chilean neurobiologists working in the 1970’s • Defining what it means to be alive Emergence of complex hierarchical systems – Hebert Simon, Ilya Prigogine, Stuart Kauffman Biosemiotics – Howard Pattee, Luis M Rocha, Hoffmeyer & Emmeche Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

What is knowledge?

 

Karl Popper - a philosopher who studied science

– "

All life is problem solving

"

–

Knowledge is solutions to problems

– Epistemology summary • Knowledge is fundamentally based on external reality • The ultimate authority for deciding the truth of a claim to know is its correspondence with external reality - but....

• Claims to know are cognitively constructed • Impossible to prove any claim to know is true (or false) – Any number of favourable tests are logically falsified by a single failure – Any falsification can be "immunised" by auxiliary hypotheses

Knowledge is fallible

( Firestone & McElroy 2003 ) Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

Popper's three worlds

2.

Cybernetic self-regulation Consciousness Cognition Organismic/Personal Knowledge exists in World 2

Emerges from World 1 processes

Polanyi's epistemology of personal knowledge encompassed within Popper's World 2 Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

Development/Recall Reproduction/Production 1.

Energy Thermodynamics Physics Chemistry Biochemistry Existence/Reality World 1 3.

Expressed language Computer memory Recorded thought Logical artefacts Heredity Objective Knowledge forms World 3 Persistent logical Content produced / evaluated by World 2 processes © William P. Hall

Karl Popper's "tetradic schema" or "general theory of evolution"

   

P n TS TS • • • • • TS 1 2 m EE P n+1

P n TS

a real-world problem faced by an entity a tentative solution or tentative theory

EE

a process of error elimination

P n+1

changed problem as faced from by an entity incorporating a surviving solution TS may be embodied in W2 in the individual entity, or TS may be expressed in words as a hypothesis in W3, subject to objective criticism

Objective expression and criticism lets our theories die in our stead

As an iterated cyclic process, solutions can approach reality Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

John Boyd's OODA Loop process wins conflicts

OBSERVE (Results of Test) OBSERVATION PARADIGMS EXTERNAL INFORMATION ORIENT DECIDE (Hypothesis) ACT (Test) GUIDANCE AND CONTROL PARADIGMS

GENETIC HERITAG E CULTURE PARADIGMS PROCESSES

CHANGING CIRCUMSTANCES

O

UNFOLDING ENVIRONMENTAL RESULTS OF ACTIONS

INPUT

O

ANALYSIS

SYNTHESIS

MEMORY OF HISTORY D A

UNFOLDING INTERACTION WITH EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

 An organisation's success in a competitive environment depends critically its ability to do a better job of assimilating information, increasing its epistemic quality to generate strategic power, and reducing decision cycle times. See http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/ http://www.belisarius.com

.

Some OODA definitions

   

Observation

assembles data about the world in which the adaptive entity exists (including the entity's own effects and those of its competitors on that world). Data is given a context relating to the entity's interactions with the world.

Orientation

processes that observations into semantically linked knowledge in the form of a world view comprised of – new information, – memories of prior experience (which may be explicit, implicit or even tacit, – genetic heritage (i.e., "natural talent"), – cultural traditions (i.e., paradigms), and – analysis (destruction) of the existing world view, and synthesis (creation) of a revised world view including possibilities for action. This generates intelligence (in a military sense).

Decision

selects amongst possible actions generated by the orientation, action(s) to try. Choice is governed and informed by – wisdom based on prior experience gained from previous OODA cycles, and – the synthesis (creation) of new possibilities to try.

Action

involves putting the decision to test by applying it to the world. The loop begins to repeat as the entity observes the results of its action.

Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

Maturana and Varela: autopoiesis defines life

  – – – – –

Autopoiesis

(= self + production) is the condition achieved by a bounded and self-regulating autocatalytic set of processes able to maintain its existence as an autonomous entity in the face of environmental perturbations; i.e., that which gives a living entity the property of life.

Recognizing an autopoietic entity (see von Krogh & Roos) –

Self-identifiably bounded

(membranes, tags)

Individually identifiable components within the boundary Mechanistic

(i.e., metabolism/cybernetic processes)

System boundaries internally determined

(self reference) (complex)

System intrinsically produces own components Self-produced components are necessary and sufficient to produce the system

(autonomy) Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

Paradigm of the autopoietic organised system

 

Maturana and Varela

(1980) - Autopoiesis & Cognition – properties of living things – Early 1970s quest to define the property of life – Autonomous entities defined by self regulation and self production Emergence – – – – – –

I. Prigogine H. Simon H. Morowitz J.J. Kay

- Nobel Laureate • Principles of non-equilibrium thermodynamics (1962) – Architecture of Complex Systems (1968) – Energy Flow in Biology: • Systems forced through time to evolve increasingly complex cycles to transport energy/matter from sources to sinks (1984) – Self-organization in living systems

S. Salthe

(1985, 1993) • emergence in a scalar hierarchy

S. Kauffman

(1993) – Origins of Order: • "autocatalytic sets" • "organization for free" Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

Complexity theory: Hierarchically complex dissipative systems and the focal level (complex triad)

HIGH LEVEL SYSTEM / ENVIRONMENT Emergent properties

•

Synthesis cannot predict higher level properties

•

Behaviour is uncomputable SYSTEM SYSTEM SYSTEM boundary conditions, constraints, regulations FOCAL LEVEL

• •

Boundary conditions & constraints select Analysis can explain SUBSYSTEMS Possibilities initiating conditions universal laws "material causes"

• Stanley Salthe (1993) Development and Evolution: Complexity and Change in Biology Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

Emergence of knowledge

      

Cognition

is the cybernetics of autopoiesis (Maturana)

Emergence

= establishment of a complex system at a new level in the hierarchy between two pre-existing levels of complexity (Salthe)

Early autopoietic systems emerge close to thermodynamic equilibrium between coalescence/disintegration

(Kauffman's autocatalytic sets) – Autopoietic systems produce more components that favour autopoiesis – Dis-integrationg systems lose history, but return components to the

environment that have previously worked in autopoietic systems

• Knowledge of autopoiesis is inherent in the environment, thus shared promiscuously • Promiscuity impedes specialisation because random components need to work together – Early reproduction requires only growth and fragmentation - where fragments

would retain some of the parent's history Selection for self-stabilization

evolves towards clonal reproduction away from equilibrium, to preserve structural history that worked

Knowledge

defines the nature and behaviour of the autopoietic system

Meaning

= knowledge of solutions to life embodied in dynamic structure

Knowledge = heredity

= historically accumulated 'information' controlling autopoietic cybernetics to regulate problem responses Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

Knowledge: a phenomenon of emergent and evolving autopoiesis

Evolutionary Stage Turbulence Integration Dis-integration The nature and growth of autopoietic knowledge



Turbulent flow from available energy (exergy) sources



more organised (state of decreased entropy) ) Coalescent systems have no past

. Self-regulatory/self-

Coalescence / Emergence

Tentative solutions

† Stabilised autopoiesis

Stable solutions

† Dispositional autopoiesis

Selected solutions

† Semiotic autopoiesis † Criticised solutions Shared solutions Knowledge sharing



(heredity/knowledge).

Competition among 

dis-integrate and lose their histories.

Replication, transcription and translation

. With life.

. Howard Pattee series of papers; Luis Rocha (1965-2000) (1995-) series of papers.

Emergent orders of autopoietic complexity

     Presence of autopoietic system self-defines the focal level of a complex triad

1st order triad

–

Focal level = living cell

– – – – – –

Subsystems/components Supersystem/environment = macromolecules = dynamic medium/ecosystem/multicellular organisms 2nd order triad

–

Focal level = multicellular organism

– –

Subsystems/components Supersystem/environment = living cells = dynamic ecosystem 3rd order triad

–

Focal level = society of organisms (ants, bees, termites) Subsystems/components = multicellular organisms Supersystems/environment = dynamic ecosystem 3rd order triad

–

Focal level = human economic organization Subsystems/components = entities with linguistic capabilities Supersystems/environment = dynamic economy

Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

Reproduction, sex, and diversification (1)

  World 2 knowledge transmitted by the division of pre-existing dynamic structure – inescapable consequence of autopoiesis – entails some loss of computationally irreducible structure – depends on what parts of structure passed on Emergence of world 3 knowledge depends on evolution of codification systems – Autocatalytic nucleic acid polymers in emergence of first order autopoiesis.

• Nucleic acid polymers may have enzymatic and/or structural fns • Autoreplication of polymer replicates the polymer's functions • RNAs retain structural & enzymatic functions to apply control info • DNAs codified control information into "genes" – Selective advantages for grouping genes into chromosomes • Accurate replication • Controlled segregation into daughter cells Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

Reproduction, sex, and diversification (2)

    Clonal reproduction in

prokaryotes

– Clonal evol & differentiation of coadapted snippets in lineages – Advantage: Protected accuracy of existing world 3 knowledge – Disadvantage: Reduced ability to recombine tested knowledge from different sources in one lineage Sexual recombination totally independent from reproduction – Transformation (naked DNA absorbed from environment) – Transduction (viral transfer) – Conjugation (transfer of plasmid DNA via cell bridge) – Recognition of related & rejection of unrelated DNA sequences – Pairing & crossing over of homologous DNA

Eukaryote

DNA well isolated from external exchanges Choreographed cell & nuclear fusion – Choreographed recombination and assortment – Specialised knowledge allows emergence of biological speciation and gene pools as evolutionary entities Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

Knowledge in higher order autopoiesis (1)



Second order systems

– Clonal budding and alternation of generations common in lower orgs – W2 knowledge transmitted via structure of egg cell • Learning reflected in structural connections of neurones and other aspects of dispositional structure (physiological adaptation) • Most dispositional (somatic) learning cannot be transferred via sexual reproduction – Extended parental care can transfer some W2 knowledge via demonstration and copying (i.e., tacit exchange) – W3 knowledge in DNA • All cells have same DNA (multicellular organisms) • Some DNA is control info for cell differentiation and development • Only evolves via blind variation and selective elimination of carriers – W3 knowledge in extrasomatic heritage • Evolution of semiotic/linguistic transfers • Encoded objects Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

Knowledge in higher order autopoiesis (2)



Third order systems

– W2 knowledge (societies, organizations) – Pubs: Hall 2003, 2005, 2006; Else 2004; Hall et al. 2005; Nousala et al, 2005; Dalmaris et al. 2007 • layout and capabilities of plant and machinery • social network structure • tacit organizational routines • tacit personal knowledge • cultural dynamics – W3 knowledge • part of DNA at level of individual organisms encodes adaptations for social behaviours • pheromonal trails, published inducements, etc.

• records and documents of organizational significance • explicitly defined processes and procedures Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

The organisation is a complex system in the environment

Constraints and boundaries(laws of nature determine what is possible) Energy (exergy) Materials The organisation's imperatives and goals Entropy/Waste Products Recruitment Income Observations

Processes

Departures Expenses Actions

 Processes (which may be complex subsystems that are autopoietic in their own rights) are necessary responses to imperatives: – Survival – Self-maintenance of the processes themselves Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

Some concepts building on autopoiesis theory and Karl Popper's theory of knowledge

  

Organisations (and other living things) are complex dissipative systems emerging from the medium They consume environmental resources that are limited

  

Resources People Income Sinks for entropically degraded materials/devalued energy



Competition limits survival Medium or supersystem

{

Resources People Economics Information Constraints

WORLD 1 ("everything")

Organisation 1 Organisation 3 Organisation 2 Organisation 4

Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

Knowledge in an autopoietic entity

Embodied cybernetic knowledge

WORLD 2

Material Reality

WORLD 1

Produce Recall Symbolically encoded knowledge/ memory

WORLD 3

AUTOPOIETIC SYSTEM ITERATION/SELECTION THROUGH TIME

Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

Emergent autopoietic vortexes forming world 2 and world 3 in a flux of exergy to entropy

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Symbolic knowledge .

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Embodied knowledge Autocatalytic metabolism Exergy source

 Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

Flux along the focal level

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Material cycles Entropy sink

Cognition (terms are meaningful in relation to autopoietic or artificially intelligent systems)

    Observation : Initial change induced within the autopoietic system by a perturbation Classification ( / decision ): Process by which an induced change results in the system settling into one of alternative attractor basins on a landscape of potential gradients Meaning : The net result in the system due to the initial propagation and classification of an observation Coombe's Hierarchy (Australian Army Info Mgmt Manual) – Data : The atomic level of meaning – – – – – Information (first level of synthesis): Classified observations assembled into relationship structures Knowledge (second level of synthesis): information Semantically identified and linked Intelligence (third level of synthesis): Tentative theory(ies) about the world based on knowledge Wisdom (fourth level of synthesis): Solutions after the elimination of errors through testing theories against the world Strategic power (the result): Wisdom applied to control the world Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

Coombe's hierarchy in the autopoietic entity

Classification Autopoietic system Cell Multicellular organism Social organisation State Environment Observations (data) Memory of history Semantic processing to form knowledge Meaning Perturbations

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Related

information

An "attractor basin" Predict, propose

Intelligence

Another view

Conscious OODA Loop in Material Terms

Medium/ Environment Autopoietic system

Observation

Memory

World State 1 Classification

Perturbation Transduction

Synthesis Time Evaluation Decision Processing Paradigm Assemble Response Observed internal changes

Iterate

World State 2

Effect

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Effect action

Internal changes

Paradigm of the autopoietic organization (2)

 

Nelson & Winter

(1982): Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change

– Postulated that organizational knowledge transcends knowledge of individual members to form organizational heredity to maintain the existence and behaviour of the organization (i.e., self-production).

– Assumed this transcendent knowledge was tacit (Polanyi) • physical layout • routines • contexts • connections

von Krogh and Roos

Epistemology (1995) Organizational

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Existing users of Autopoiesis neglect World 3

    Current paradigm of organizational autopoiesis – Blind spot: Maturana & Varela legitimately did not include reproduction in their minimal definition of autopoiesis – As stated the concept does not consider persistent heredity transcending the life of a single entity Nelson & Winter – Focus on tacit personal & organizational knowledge – Represents late 1970s early 1980s thinking • As they were writing, world 3 organizational content largely consisted of data, information & transaction records, not knowledge Roles of persistent knowledge (heredity) to guide growth & maintenance of the living organization The exception is Hugo Urrestarazu (2004) On Boundaries of Autopoietic Systems – Three domains: phenomenological, "biological", "languaging – Funct. equivalent to Popper's 3 worlds Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

Organisational knowledge in World 3

  Persistent objects of corporate knowledge – Articles of incorporation & employment agreements – Contracts – E-mails & correspondence – Graphics and drawings – Plans, records, process & procedure documents – Enacted workflow systems – Written history – Links & captured contexts – Databases – AV recordings World 3 comprises the bulk of organizational memory or heredity Personal Research http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net/

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