Loop reinforcement as a mechanism of self-organization

Abstract

The process of self-organization is critical to understanding the Maximum Power Principle. Self-organization is the process whereby the parts or components of a system become organized so that power (e.g., metabolism when the system is an ecosystem) of the whole system is maximized. H. T. Odum wrote extensively on how self-organization takes place but his conception lacked experimental verification and mechanistic rigor. In other words, he never scientifically demonstrated how self-organization works. In Odum’s thinking, self-organization was a selection process, with similarities but also differences with Darwinian natural selection. He sometime referred to it as a “trial and error”-type process. This presentation reviews Odum’s thinking on the loop reinforcement mechanism of self-organization, which was the main mechanism he discussed. Loop reinforcement in ecosystems means that the species that feeds back energy to bring in the greatest energy (to itself and to the ecosystem) will be selected for in ecological interactions during succession. Thus, the species that brings in the most energy from sources downstream of itself within the networks of the system will be selected for, and as a result the metabolism of the ecosystem will be maximized relative to alternative configurations of the networks. A model demonstration of loop reinforcement in emergy units is given for a plant-herbivore interaction from the literature to provide additional perspective on the existence of the mechanism. The presentation concludes with speculations on how Odum might have derived his understanding of self-organization without conventional scientific demonstration.