Friday, December 20, 2002

okay now from Autopoiesis, what is an organisation (of a machine)?

organization of the machine is what gives *it* a unity, ie. what determines the dynamics of interactions and transformations which it may undergo such a unity
(common definition: a machine is an organised unity of various component parts and processes)

structure of the machine is constituted by the actual relations which hold among the components which integrate a concrete machine in a given space.

consequently, organisation of a machine is independent of the properties of its components thus a machine can be realised in different ways with different components.

organisation ~ information in a sense that it signifies a functional process or effect, not dependent on the exact nature of its supporting material substrate.

a second corollary is that the use to which a machine may be put, is not a feature of its organisation, but of the domain in which the machine operates