http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ASC/AUTOPOIESIS.html (PC Press Internet CD, 03/1996)
AUTOPOIESIS
______________________________________________________Parent Node(s): ASC Glossary on Cybernetics
previous ---------- next
AUTOPOIESIS
the process whereby an organization produces
itself. An autopoietic organization is an autonomous and
self-maintaining unity which contains component-producing
processes. The components, through their interaction, generate
recursively the same network of processes which produced them.
An autopoietic system is operationally closed and structurally
state determined with no apparent inputs and outputs. A cell, an
organism, and perhaps a corporation are examples of autopoietic
systems. See ALLOPOIESIS. (F. Varela)