Origin and Evolution

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Living Systems Origin and Evolution
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Living organisms have undergone a long evolution from single-cell microorganisms, to complex multi-cell organisms, to multi-organism superorganisms. In reviewing studies of this progression to higher levels of complexity, a common sequence of behavioral characteristics can be observed:
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Existence → Proliferation → Competition → Cooperation → Aggregation

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This same sequence occurred as individual cells joined to produce organisms, and again as individual organisms joined to produce superorganisms.

Competition
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The first living systems were individual, independent, self-sufficient cells, similar to bacteria. They lived in a plentiful and stable environment, where each could readily obtain the nourishment it needed. As they reproduced, the living systems began to populate their environmental niche, and had to compete for the available nourishment.
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Through their change-inducing reproduction process, some new cells were better able to compete for food, and survived to reproduce better than the other cells. Over time, natural selection of the most effective design variations led to a variety of new, more-capable and complex cells with improved capabilities for interacting with their environments.

Cooperation
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As the variety and complexity of cells increased, some cells with complementary specialized capabilities began to work together for mutual benefit. As they evolved to become more and more interdependent, these cooperating cells eventually merged into single-cell “organisms,” and eventually into multi-cell organisms. These new organism entities, with their cooperative but constrained cells, provided better opportunities for cell-survival than individual cells acting alone.
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Within the organisms, the specialization and cooperation of cells became assisted by an intermediate structure of organs that organized individual behaviors by cell components into collective actions. Like the cells before them, some organisms became complete living systems whose limited life cycles included a change-inducing reproduction processes. The result was a mutually dependent coevolution, that improved the survival capabilities of both cells and organisms.

Increasing Levels of Complexity
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As independent living systems, the organisms existed in physical environments, from which they ingested raw materials for nourishment and energy. As they reproduced to fill their local environments, each individual organism had to compete with the other organisms for available food and resources.
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Through the variations caused by their change-inducing reproduction process and natural selection, organisms with different capabilities emerged. Some organisms with complementary capabilities learned to work together cooperatively for greater mutual benefit and higher survival ability. Over time, the individual organisms became more dedicated to specialized cooperative behavior and began to merge into superorganisms.
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Like cells and organisms before them, some superorganisms evolved to become fully functioning living systems. The result was a mutually-dependent cell-organism-superorganism existence and coevolution.
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Familiar examples of superorganisms from the insect world include ant colonies and bee hives. In the animal world, some apes have assembled into tribe-like structures, but only humans have joined together to form highly-developed superorganisms. Today most humans exist within the complex superorganism structures of cities within nations.
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It is helpful to think of these human-based superorganisms as nation-state-cities, in recognition of their geographical governance hierarchy. Within this structure, an individual city or state is not by itself a complete superorganism. Only the collective capabilities of a nation, its states, and their cities, provide the complete array of living system functions that are necessary for life at the superorganism, organism and cell levels of existence.
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In many respects, these nation-state-city superorganisms are not yet fully-developed. A human organism's participation as a citizen is still somewhat voluntary. In cities, there is still a significant amount of crime, where a citizen refuses to obey the prescribed rules of behavior. Under a fully-developed superorganism, deliberate disobedience would be far less prevalent. In nations, there is still a wide range of development, from primitive iron-fist tribal orientations to sophisticated democratic institutions.

Three Levels of Living System
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Today, human-based living systems exist at three levels, within a structural hierarchy made up of cells, organisms, and superorganisms. Each superorganism typically contains millions of organisms, and each organism contains trillions of cells.
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superorganism

m i l l i o n s o f o r g a n i s m s

m i l l i o n s o f t r i l l i o n s o f c e l l s

Cells are comprised of a myriad of component biomolecules that are harnessed together within organelles, where they collectively carry out the cell's specialized living system functions.
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Organisms are comprised of a myriad of component cells that are harnessed together within organs, where they collectively carry out the organism’s specialized living system functions.
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Superorganisms are comprised of a myriad of component organisms that are harnessed together within organizations, where they collectively carry out the superorganism’s specialized living system functions.

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This is a recursive structure, where each level of living system (cell, organism and superorganism) has the same basic architectural design. Within this three-level structure, control and the initiation of action generally proceed and fan-out downward, from superorganism to organisms to cells to biomolecules. The result is a collective functional action that builds upward, emerging from actionable molecule to cell to organism to superorganism. Control goes downward through the hierarchy, while resulting actions start at the bottom and collectively build upward.

The next page Living Systems Structure provides a list of the basic life functions that are necessary for a living system to exist.