Systemic Awareness

I came up with this new term in the hopes that it will be a useful tool in making sense of a subject that I've been dwelling on for some months now.  The subject in question basically has to do with the limits to our intentionality.  

We have wishes and desires, and knowledge that relates to these.  The fact that we are able to use our bodies to do things that we want does not mean that our bodies will align themselves precisely with our wishes.  Picture a drug addict who is fully aware of the damage that his addiction is doing to himself and others, yet who continues to use drugs.  Even though he knows on some level that he does not want to continue to use drugs, certain systems within his body "want" him to continue to use.  

I understand this phenomenon as being caused by a partial lack of systemic awareness.  When a system contains a single mechanism for perceiving and responding to an environmental cue adaptively, that system has achieved a minimum level of systemic awareness.  The system has become an adaptive entity when adaptive mechanisms at the level of the system itself have emerged.  These mechanisms require three interrelated parts: receptors (to sense), effectors (to act) and the appropriate connections between them.  

The need for the appropriate links between sensors and effectors can be seen within the human body:  If I were told that I was about to be bombarded with bacteria (at a higher level than usual), I would be unable to mobilize my immune system to prepare for the onslaught.  The immune system does have the ability to "work overtime", but this ability cannot be elicited by my knowledge of my current state.  This is a case of a lack of systemic awareness.

For another example, we may jump to a higher level.  The ecosystem on the planet earth is being driven away from its current state as a result of the effects of human life.  Considered as an organism itself, humanity has some knowledge of what is happening, yet it is unclear if the appropriate steps will be taken in time to prevent disaster.  If disaster is averted by collective action, this  will most likely be the result of humanity having developed the appropriate mechanisms of perception and action.

I think that we are in the position to learn some valuable lessons about how to prevent climate change by looking at the ways that adaptive chains of perception and action occur in the human organism.  It's important to point out that the mechanisms of bodily action that perform (e.g.) action x are not necessarily mobilized when a different level of organization in the body knows that action x is needed.   So, if humanity is going to deal with the climate crisis in a way that bears any resemblance to the way that other biological organisms deal with crises, we ought not to expect that the solution will come from a mere reversal of every process that has been causing climate change.