International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

The set of initial conditions needed in a potentially self-organizing system.

M.B. HAWTON (1974, p.87-8) (quoted by D.L. VELKOV – 1989, p.48-50) describes the preorganization situation as follows: "In the self-organizing system insufficient prior links exist, and the balance of data for immmediate control purposes has to be generated inside the system. This may appear as if by magic, but in practice it has to come from somewhere if the laws of physics are not to be abrogated… no system can be built which is initially self-organizing. Initially it must have sufficient preorganization to run the first cycle(s), so as to generate the information which will be accumulated to organize future cycles. A machine can only become self-organizing through operation".

An example could be the preexistence of the phonation capacity in the newborn, which is the first condition for the future construction of any spoken language.

However, preorganization must also have an origin. Thus, the self-organization riddle is somehow recursive and probably related to a hierarchy of complexity levels. The existence of organization at a lesser level of complexity, combined with specific new environmental opportunities and/or constraints may explain preorganization for a higher complexity level.

D.L. VELKOV also quotes H. ATLAN, according to whom "organization is meant either as constraints between parts, i.e. redundancy or non-repetitive order, i.e. variety and inhomogeneity" (Ibid).

A dynamic mechanism seems necessary: only parts entering in interaction generate new constraints, in accordance, for instance with H. SABELLI's process theory.

HAWTON's views should be compared with V CSANYI's autogenetic system precursors, zero system and supercycles formation. They are also related to the construction of M. EIGEN's hypercycles.

They even may help to understand better the riddle of the relation of autogenesis to autopoiesis.