“…organisms are nothing like mechanisms, and…they have fascinating properties that cannot be explained by a complicated machine, however complicated. They can only be explained by complex systems. The distinction is this. A Harrier jet engine is a complicated machine, but a small organism, a single-cell amoeba, is a complex system. And the difference is either they have re-entrant loops that can't be mapped, they are never fully determined or determinable, not entirely predictable. But that doesn't mean there's chaos. There is a sweet spot in everything between order and disorder. And it is that at which all existence seems to settle, and particularly life.”
—Iain McGilchrist, Metaphysics and the Matter With Things (transcript)
#iainmcgilchrist #organisms #mechanisms