3. The Domain of Synergetics

3. The Domain of Synergetics

Evidently, in synergetics synergy is not conceived as an anthropological paradigm. It is a different domain on our Map of Synergy, and its contours are not clearly visible at first since synergy, as stressed above, has only implicit presence in synergetics. Thus we must try, first of all, to make these contours more precise. In explanations of Haken himself, he usually describes the subject sphere of synergetics by the most general formulas like “science of cooperation”, “theory of interaction”, “study of general laws in systems consisting of separate parts”, phenomena of “joint activity, joint energy in performing something” etc. etc. And indeed, this subject sphere contains extremely diverse phenomena and processes as well as extremely broad theories: one usually includes into the orbit of synergetics theory of dissipative structures, theory of self-organization, theory of deterministic chaos, theory of fractals, even theory of complexity, and so on. One can bet that there is no such interpretation of synergy (or another dynamical paradigm for that matter) that could serve as a common conceptual base for all this spectrum of very heterogeneous theories. It means that in order to analyze synergy in synergetics we must first single out of all the spectrum of “synergetic” theories and processes “synergic” ones, i.e. those, in which the presence of “something like synergy” can really be found. Guided by an intuitive idea of synergy that is suggested by the etymological meaning of the word, we shall include in the sphere of synergy in synergetics, in the first place, such theories that describe phenomena and processes, in which some coherence and collaboration of two different kinds or flows of energy coming from different sources takes place. The subclass of such “synergic theories” is also quite large, and it always was a kind of the core in all the variety of synergetic theories and conceptions. Of course, the conceptual and experiential framework for the intuitive idea of synergy present implicitly in synergetics is unavoidably the relation and interaction of inner and outer energy in open systems. A clear and simple description of this synergic or synergetic relation has been given by E.Laszlo: “Flow of outer energy going through an open non-equilibrium system in a state far from equilibrium induces the structuring of the system and its components and makes it possible for the system to receive, use and conserve growing and growing amounts of free energy. At the same time, the increase of complexity of the system takes place”[9] . This description can be considered as a brief exposition of the basic contents of synergy in synergetics. All the properties pointed out here can be found in the list of the ten “key principles characterizing the essence of synergetics” formulated by Haken in 1999 in the interview to Elena Nikolaevna Knyazeva (who luckily also takes part in this symposium). Cf., e.g.: “3. Among physical, chemical and biological systems it is open systems far from thermal equilibrium that are considered. … 6. Qualitative changes take place. 7. Emergent new qualities can be observed in such systems. 8. Functional structures of spatial, temporal or spatial-temporal nature emerge”[10] . Now it is clear enough which theories must be ranked among synergic ones. In the first place it is the theory of the laser radiation based on what is called the “laser paradigm” by Haken. The laser paradigm is the first example on which the existence of synergetics was discovered by him, and later he repeatedly used it to illustrate the principles of this science. Basically, it demonstrates, how “the pumping introduced into the atomic system from the outside… if the system is driven far from thermal equilibrium… produces a very pronounced coherence” of the laser radiation (Haken).

Clearly, it is an ideal example of synergy in synergetics: the pumping is the outer energy factor, and the laser paradigm describes, how the action of this factor, i.e. the meeting of outer and inner energy, syn-ergeia, in a certain atomic system driven far from equilibrium leads to qualitative changes such as the emergence of new structures and establishment of self-organizing dynamics (“a very pronounced coherence”). The next example is provided by a large class of dynamical systems generating so called dissipative structures. This term introduced by Ilya Prigogine is an obvious oxymoron. By definition, dissipation means the loss of energy in a system, the increase of its entropy and decrease of its structuring; but Prigogine’s notion connects dissipation with the generation of new structures: “Under strongly non-equilibrium conditions the transition from thermal chaos and disorder to order can take place. New dynamical states can emerge due to the interaction of a given system with the surrounding milieu. These new structures we have called dissipative structures since we wanted to stress the constructive role of dissipative processes in their formation”[11]. With respect to the former structure of the system, dissipative structures are not simply new, but more ordered and differentiated, and their formation demonstrates the emergence of a new type of dynamics: they are structures of self-organization, and one of their principal properties is, according to Prigogine, a very strong coherence in the behavior of all the constituents of the system. Of course, in each case the self-organization dynamics emerges due to the “interaction with the surrounding milieu”, i.e. the meeting of inner and outer energy. Like the laser radiation for Haken, Prigogine also has a model example, on which he often demonstrates the main properties of dissipative structures. It is the B?nard (or Rayleigh-B?nard) convection, the phenomenon of coherent motion of big (macroscopic) molecular ensembles in a liquid with the vertical temperature gradient: when the gradient takes a certain maximal value, convection starts and the molecules are grouping into regular dynamical patterns called the B?nard cells, which represent a simple directly observable example of self-organizing dynamics induced by the flow of outer energy (the heating-up of the liquid). There are great many kinds of systems with dissipative structures, and many different types of self-organization processes are realized by these structures.

What matters for us is that in all of them we catch the same key properties, structural and dynamic ones, that can be summed up into a definite dynamical paradigm. This “paradigm of dissipative self-organization” is essentially the same as the “laser paradigm” by Haken; and we conclude that synergy is, indeed, present in synergetics as a certain dynamical paradigm, which can be called the “synergetic paradigm of synergy” and can be summarized briefly as follows: in a system driven far from its usual equilibrium regimes the flow of outer energy can cause the emergence of new self-organizing dynamics that generates more coherent and differentiated dynamical structures and brings about the radical restructuring of the system.

This paradigm can be found not in all, but in most of basic phenomena and processes studied in synergetics.