Ervin Laszlo and Gregory Bateson noted that there are patterned similarities in how hierarchies in nature behave in a self-organized manner. This concept of self-organization can also be applied to human behavior. Patterns of branches are created over time through repeated loops, though the executions remain varied between different entities. For humans, language and the environment shape the speed, frequency, and length of branches in their lives. Maturana and Varela described evolution as a type of branching contained by the environment. Similarly, human stories are contained within the "window pane" and "craggy mountain" of language. While patterns may seem similar, how they are executed is entirely up to humans based on their actions and

1. Matrices & patterns
Living self-organized lives
By Sabin Densmore, 10/19/2013

2. Loops & branches
Ervin Laszlo noted the patterned similarities of behavior in hierarchies of
nature (Laszlo, 1972).
Gregory Bateson called this idea the “pattern that connects” (Bateson, 1979).
The application of this concept to human behavior falls under the realm of
“second order cybernetics”, that is, the study of the self-organization of the
self-organized by the self-organizing.

3. Loops & Branches … in nature
There are similarities in the pattern, but the executions remain varied and
distinct.

4. Loops & BraNCHES …of living
Branches are the
pathways and
decision points of
things in nature.
Patterns of branches
are created over time
through patterned
repetition of loops.
While this is true for
evolution and self-
organizing entities, there
is a third-order or layer
humans bring to this
system.
The environment in
which life happens
drives the speed,
frequency, and length
of branches.

5. Language & environment
Maturana and Varela describe evolution as a kind of cyclical branching
described by the environment within which the evolution occurs (1998).
Think of a rain drop down a bar window, or a lava flow down a craggy
mountain.
In other words, think of dendritic flow contained in the circles before.
Language is the window pane and craggy mountain within which humans
live their dendritic lives. The window pane and craggy mountain are the
story.
Once we realize that, we find a way to re-engage and re-construct the
concept of cycles and ruts.

6. Once upon a time …
Every
human story
begins.
And each story
has the chance to
end
in any place
imaginable …
… and each
ending
becomes the next
once upon
a time.
And each of us drives that story through our own actions within context of
environment.While there are similarities in the pattern, the executions remain varied and
distinct.

7. … Lived happily ever after
Language and interpretation of language create the memories of the stories
we’ve lived.
When we change our language as we describe our stories, we can change
our perception of the story in which we live currently.
And we find that the “endless cycle” becomes nothing more than a familiar
pattern, an illusion created by the way we’ve perceived our previous stories.
Nothing we do now is the same as what we did yesterday, and nothing we do
tomorrow will be the same as what we do now.
The pattern may be similar, but the execution is entirely in our hands.
We are not locked into the patterns we create, but create the patterns we feel
locked into.