[drojas]

Maturana & Varela's concept of "autopoiesis" is not widely known but I think it should be part of biology programs in high school. It is a simple concept that opens the door for complexity and evolution in an open-ended course. It is relevant to this topic as it is foundational to the theoretical journey that is shared in all the videos of this page. I don't have a book reference at the moment so forgive me for the wikipedia reference. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopoiesis

""" The term autopoiesis (from Greek αὐτo- (auto-) 'self', and ποίησις (poiesis) 'creation, production') refers to a system capable of producing and maintaining itself by creating its own parts.[1] The term was introduced in the 1972 publication Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living by Chilean biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela to define the self-maintaining chemistry of living cells. """

I had the opportunity to attend a couple of his lectures when I was in the Biology program at the University of Chile. I must say hearing him, his students (neuroscience professors) and colleagues discuss different topics changed my view of the natural world by allowing me to understand "systems" in a way that is both holistic and practical (autopoiesis, natural drift, etc.). His laboratory was full of students that vibrated with the teachings of "The Santiago School of Cognition" and I will always be thankful for being able to interact with them.