autopoiesis
/ˌɔːtəʊpɔɪˈiːsɪs/
autopoiesis means self-creation; self-organization.
autopoiesis is pronounced /ˌɔːtəʊpɔɪˈiːsɪs/.
Why “autopoiesis” is a great word
The capacity of a system to continuously generate and sustain itself as a distinct entity through its own internal network of processes. From the combining forms auto- (from Greek αὐτός, "self") and -poiesis (from Greek ποίησις, "creation, production"), coined in 1972 by Chilean biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela. Unlike allopoiesis, where a factory makes cars but not more factory, or the broader drift of self-organization seen in swirling galaxies, autopoiesis is the relentless, circular insistence on producing the very processes that produce you. It is a cell membrane assembling its own lipids, a forest ecosystem regulating its humidity, and a mind thinking thoughts that refine its own capacity to think—the quiet, perpetual miracle of a thing that draws its own boundary and calls it self.
Etymology
Coined in 1972 by Chilean biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, from auto- + -poiesis. (see also Ancient Greek αὐτόποιος (autópoios, “self-produced”)).
noun
- Self-creation; self-organization.“If living systems are machines, that they are physical autopoietic machines is trivially obvious: they transform matter into themselves in a manner such that the product of their operation is their own organization. However we deem the converse is also true: a physical system if autopoietic, is living. In other words, we claim that the notion of autopoiesis is necessary and sufficient to character”
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