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Supraorganism

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+#REDIRECT [[Supraorganism]]
-{{Redirect|Superorganism}}
-[[File:Termite Cathedral DSC03570.jpg|thumb|right|240px|A mound built by [[Nasutitermes triodiae|cathedral termite]]s]]
-[[File:Reef0484.jpg|thumb|right|240px|A [[coral]] colony]]
-A '''supraorganism''' or '''superorganism''' (the latter is [[Semantics|semantically]] incorrect<ref>Lüttge, Ulrich (ed.); Cánovas, Francisco M. (ed.); Matyssek, Rainer (ed.). [https://books.google.com/books?id=3mNBDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA223 Progress in Botany 77]. Springer, 2016, p. 223. “Note that etymologically, the Latin word ‘supra’ means ‘higher’ in the sense of ordination, whereas ‘super’ implies a spatial order. Thus, in contrast to the mainly used notion of ‘superorganism’, we prefer to stay with the notion of a ‘supraorganism’.”</ref><ref>Stoltman, Joseph P. (ed.) [https://books.google.com/books?id=7WrVewV6rOwC&pg=PA614 21st Century Geography: A Reference Handbook] Vols. 1 & 2, SAGE, 2012, p. 614. "Certainly, the EU has a president, a commission, a parliament, and a currency. It also is trying to create more statelike features, such as a constitution. Yet even EU supporters argue that the European project is not to make the EU a giant country. Instead, '''rather than being a superstate, the EU is a ''suprastate''''' which is characterized by an overall structure that facilitates cooperation between member countries and enhances their strengths while not erasing national governments or national identities."</ref>) is a group of [[Synergy|synergetically]] interacting organisms.
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-==History==
+{{R from move}}
-In the first volume of ''The Principles of Sociology'' (1876), [[Herbert Spencer]] introduced the term ''super&#8209;organic phenomena'' to denote "all those processes and products which imply the co-ordinated actions of many individuals", of which "the most familiar, and in some respects the most instructive, are furnished by the social insects".<ref>Spencer, Herbert. [https://archive.org/details/principlesofsoci01spenuoft/page/4/mode/2up?q=%22super-organic%22 The Principles of Sociology] Vol. I, D.&nbsp;Appleton & Co., 1912, p. 4</ref> In Chapter II, titled "A Society Is an Organism", he came to the following conclusion:
+}}
-<blockquote>
-On thus seeing that an ordinary living organism may be regarded as a nation of units which live individually, and have many of them considerable degrees of independence, we shall have the less difficulty in regarding a nation of human beings as an organism.<ref>Spencer, Herbert. [https://archive.org/details/principlesofsoci01spenuoft/page/455/mode/1up The Principles of Sociology] Vol. I, D.&nbsp;Appleton & Co., 1912, p. 455</ref>
-</blockquote>
-The term '''''supraorganism''''' was introduced by [[Alfred E. Emerson]] in 1939.<ref> Emerson, A. E. "Social coordination and the supraorganism". ''[[The American Midland Naturalist]]'', no. 21, 1939, pp. 182–209 </ref>
-==Concept==
-The term ''supraorganism'' is used most often to describe a [[social unit]] of [[eusociality|eusocial]] animals, where [[division of labour]] is highly specialised and where individuals are not able to survive by themselves for extended periods.  [[Ants]] are the best-known example of such a supraorganism. A supraorganism can be defined as "a collection of agents which can act in concert to produce phenomena governed by the collective",<ref>{{cite book |author=Kelly, Kevin |title=Out of control: the new biology of machines, social systems and the economic world |publisher=Addison-Wesley |location=Boston |year=1994 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/outofcontrolnewb00kell/page/98 98] |isbn=978-0-201-48340-6 |oclc= |doi= |url=https://archive.org/details/outofcontrolnewb00kell/page/98 }}</ref> phenomena being any activity "the hive wants" such as ants collecting food and [[antipredator adaptation|avoiding predators]],<ref>{{cite journal  |vauthors=Deneubourg JL, etal | year=1989 |title=The Self-Organizing Exploratory Pattern of the Argentine Ant |journal=[[Journal of Lnsect Behavior]] |volume=3 | issue=2 |pages=159–168 |doi=10.1007/BF01417909| citeseerx=10.1.1.382.9846 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal  |vauthors=O'Shea-Wheller TA, etal | year=2015 |title=Differentiated Anti-Predation Responses in a Superorganism|journal=[[PLOS One]] |volume=10 | issue=11 |page=e0141012 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0141012| pmid=26558385 | pmc=4641648 | bibcode=2015PLoSO..1041012O }}</ref> or bees choosing a new nest site.<ref>{{cite journal  |vauthors=Britton NF, etal | year=2002 |title=Deciding on a new home: how do honeybees agree?|journal=[[Proceedings of the Royal Society B]] |volume=269 | issue=1498 |pages=1383–1388 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2002.2001| pmid=12079662 |pmc=1691030}}</ref> Supraorganisms tend to exhibit [[homeostasis]], [[power law]] scaling, persistent disequilibrium and emergent behaviours.<ref>[http://longnow.org/seminars/02014/nov/12/technium-unbound/ Technium Unbound, SALT The Long Now Foundation]</ref>
-The [[Gaia hypothesis]] of [[James Lovelock]],<ref>''Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth'', James Lovelock, Oxford University Press, 1979</ref> and [[Lynn Margulis]] as well as the work of [[James Hutton]] (''[[Theory of the Earth]]'', 1788), [[Vladimir Vernadsky]] and [[Guy Murchie]], have suggested that the [[biosphere]] itself can be considered a supraorganism, although this has been disputed.<ref>{{citation |last=Tyrrell |first=Toby |date=2013|title=On Gaia: A Critical Investigation of the Relationship between Life and Earth |url=http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9959.html |location=Princeton |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=209 |isbn=9780691121581 }}</ref> This view relates to [[systems theory]] and the dynamics of a [[complex system]].
-The concept of a supraorganism raises the question of what is to be considered an [[Individualism|individual]]. Toby Tyrrell's critique of the Gaia hypothesis argues that Earth's climate system does not resemble an animal's physiological system. Planetary biospheres are not tightly regulated in the same way that animal bodies are: "planets, unlike animals, are not products of evolution. Therefore we are entitled to be highly skeptical (or even outright dismissive) about whether to expect something akin to a "supraorganism"". He concludes that "the superorganism analogy is unwarranted".<ref>{{citation |last=Tyrrell |first=Toby |authorlink= |date= 2013|title= On Gaia: A Critical Investigation of the Relationship between Life and Earth |url=http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9959.html |location=Princeton |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=209 |isbn=9780691121581 |accessdate= }}</ref>
-Some scientists have suggested that individual human beings can be thought of as "supraorganisms";<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kramer|first=Peter|last2=Bressan|first2=Paola|date=2015|title=Humans as Superorganisms: How Microbes, Viruses, Imprinted Genes, and Other Selfish Entities Shape Our Behavior|journal=Perspectives on Psychological Science|language=en|volume=10|issue=4|pages=464–481|doi=10.1177/1745691615583131|pmid=26177948|issn=1745-6916|url=https://zenodo.org/record/894598}}</ref> as a typical human digestive system contains 10<sup>13</sup> to 10<sup>14</sup> microorganisms whose collective [[genome]], the [[microbiome]] studied by the [[Human Microbiome Project]], contains at least 100 times as many genes as the human genome itself.<ref>{{Cite journal| last1=Gill | first1=S. R.| last2=Pop | first2=M.| last3=Deboy | first3=R. T.| last4=Eckburg | first4=P. B.| last5=Turnbaugh | first5=P. J.| last6=Samuel | first6=B. S.| last7=Gordon | first7=J. I.| last8=Relman | first8=D. A.| last9=Fraser-Liggett | first9=C. M.| last10=Nelson| first10=K. E.| title=Metagenomic Analysis of the Human Distal Gut Microbiome| doi=10.1126/science.1124234| journal=Science| volume=312| issue=5778| pages=1355–1359| date=2 June 2006| pmid= 16741115| pmc =3027896| display-authors=8| bibcode=2006Sci...312.1355G}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal| last1=Salvucci | first1=E.| title=Selfishness, warfare, and economics; or integration, cooperation, and biology| doi= 10.3389/fcimb.2012.00054| pmid=22919645| pmc=3417387| journal=Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology| volume=2| pages=54| date=1 May 2012}}</ref> Salvucci wrote that supraorganism is another level of integration that it is observed in nature. These levels include the genomic, the organismal and the ecological levels. The genomic structure of organism reveals the fundamental role of integration and gene shuffling along evolution.<ref>{{Cite journal| last1=Salvucci | first1=E.| title=Microbiome, Holobiont and the net of life| doi= 10.3109/1040841X.2014.962478| pmid=25430522| journal=Crit Rev Microbiol| volume=42 | issue=3| pages=485–94| date= May 2016}}</ref>
-== In social theory ==
-The nineteenth century thinker [[Herbert Spencer]] coined the term ''super-organic'' to focus on social organization (the first chapter of his ''Principles of [[Sociology]]'' is entitled "Super-organic Evolution"<ref>''The Principles of Sociology'', Vol. 1, Part 1. "The Data of Sociology", Herbert Spencer, 1876</ref>), though this was apparently a distinction between the organic and the social, ''not'' an identity: Spencer explored the [[holism in science|holistic]] nature of society as a [[social organism]] while distinguishing the ways in which society did not behave like an organism.<ref>''The Principles of Sociology'', Vol. 1, Part 2, Chapter II, "A Society Is an Organism" (sections 222 and 223), Herbert Spencer, 1876</ref> For Spencer, the super-organic was an [[emergentism|emergent]] property of interacting organisms, that is, human beings. And, as has been argued by D. C. Phillips, there is a "difference between emergence and reductionism".<ref>''Holistic Thought in Social Science'', D. C. Phillips, Stanford University Press, 1976, p. 123</ref>
-The economist [[Carl Menger]] expanded upon the evolutionary nature of much social growth, but without ever abandoning [[methodological individualism]]. Many social institutions arose, Menger argued, not as "the result of socially teleological causes, but the unintended result of innumerable efforts of economic subjects pursuing 'individual' interests".<ref>''Investigations into the Method of the Social Sciences with Special Reference to Economics'', Carl Menger, Louis Schneider (translator), New York University Press, 1985</ref>
-Spencer and Menger both argued that because it is individuals who choose and act, any social whole should be considered less than an organism, though Menger emphasized this more emphatically. Spencer used the organistic idea to engage in extended analysis of [[social structure]], conceding that it was primarily an analogy. So, for Spencer, the idea of the super-organic best designated a distinct level of [[social reality]] above that of biology and psychology, and not a one-to-one identity with an organism. Nevertheless, Spencer maintained that "every organism of appreciable size is a society", which has suggested to some that the issue may be terminological.<ref>''The Political Philosophy of Herbert Spencer'', Tim S. Gray, 1996, p. 211</ref>
-The term ''superorganic'' was adopted by the  anthropologist [[Alfred L. Kroeber]] in 1917.<ref>''Patterns of Culture'', Ruth Benedict, Houghton Mifflin, 1934, p. 231</ref>  Social aspects of the supraorganism concept are analysed in Marshall (2002).<ref>Marshall, A. (2002).  ''[http://www.icpress.co.uk/books/histsci/p268.html The Unity of Nature] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070706184310/http://www.icpress.co.uk/books/histsci/p268.html |date=2007-07-06 }}'', Imperial College Press, London.</ref> Finally, recent work in social psychology has offered the supraorganism metaphor as a unifying framework to understand diverse aspects of human sociality, such as religion, conformity, and social identity processes.<ref>Kesebir, Selin. ''[https://ssrn.com/abstract=1933734 The Superorganism Account of Human Sociality: How and When Human Groups are Like Beehives]''. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2012, 16, 233-261.</ref>
-==In cybernetics==
-Supraorganisms are important in [[cybernetics]], particularly [[biocybernetics]]. They are capable of the so-called "[[Collective intelligence|distributed intelligence]]", which is a system composed of individual agents that have limited intelligence and information.<ref name=":0" /> These are able to pool resources so that they are able to complete goals that are beyond reach of the individuals on their own.<ref name=":0" /> Existence of such [[behavior]] in organisms has many implications for military and management applications, and is being actively researched.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |author=Kelly, Kevin |title=Out of control: the new biology of machines, social systems and the economic world |publisher=Addison-Wesley |location=Boston |year=1994 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/outofcontrolnewb00kell/page/251 251] |isbn=978-0-201-48340-6 |oclc= |doi= |url=https://archive.org/details/outofcontrolnewb00kell/page/251 }}<br><blockquote>If Col. Thorpe [of the US [[DARPA]]] has his way, the four divisions of the US military and hundreds of industrial subcontractors will become a single interconnected supraorganism. The immediate step to this world of distributed intelligence is an engineering protocol developed by a consortium of defense simulation centers in Orlando Florida ...</blockquote></ref>
-Supraorganisms are also considered dependent upon cybernetic governance and processes.<ref>{{Cite book|title=International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics, Second edition|last=François|first=Charles|date=2004|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=3598116306|location=Munchen|pages=428}}</ref> This is based on the idea that a biological system - in order to be effective - needs a sub-system of cybernetic communications and control.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Synergistic Selection: How Cooperation Has Shaped Evolution And The Rise Of Humankind|last=A|first=Corning Peter|date=2017|publisher=World Scientific|isbn=9789813230934|location=Hackensack, NJ|pages=211}}</ref> This is demonstrated in the way a mole rat colony uses functional synergy and cybernetic processes together.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Holistic Darwinism: Synergy, Cybernetics, and the Bioeconomics of Evolution|last=Corning|first=Peter|date=2010-08-15|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0226116136|location=Chicago|pages=199}}</ref>
-[[Joël de Rosnay|Joel de Rosnay]] also introduced a concept called "cybionte" to describe cybernetic supraorganism.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Psychology and the Internet: Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, and Transpersonal Implications|last=Gackenbach|first=Jayne|date=2011-10-10|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=9780123694256|location=Amsterdam|pages=319}}</ref> This notion associate supraorganism with [[chaos theory]], multimedia technology, and other new developments.
-== See also ==
-* [[Collective intelligence]]
-* [[Group mind (science fiction)]]
-* [[Holobiont]]
-* [[Organismic computing]]
-* [[Quorum sensing]], collective behaviour of bacteria
-* [[Stigmergy]]
-== References ==
-{{reflist|30em}}
-== Literature ==
-* Jürgen Tautz, Helga R. Heilmann: ''The Buzz about Bees&nbsp;— Biology of a Superorganism'', Springer-Verlag 2008. {{ISBN|978-3-540-78727-3}}
-* [[Bert Hölldobler]], [[E. O. Wilson]]: "''The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies''", W.W. Norton, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-393-06704-0}}
-* {{cite journal |author=Selin Kesebir |ssrn=1933734 |title=The Superorganism Account of Human Sociality How and When Human Groups Are Like Beehives |journal=Personality and Social Psychology Review |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=233–261 |doi=10.1177/1088868311430834|pmid=22202149 |year=2012 }}
-== External links ==
-{{Wiktionary}}
-* [http://archive.wired.com/medtech/health/news/2004/10/65252 People Are Human-Bacteria Hybrid, Wired Magazine, October 11, 2004]
-{{Sociobiology}}
-{{Portal bar|Biology}}
-[[Category:Superorganisms|*]]
-[[Category:Biocybernetics]]
-[[Category:Collective intelligence]]
-[[Category:Cybernetics]]
-[[Category:Holism]]
-[[Category:Biological classification]]
-[[Category:Emergence]]