Borganism in Nature

he most common example used is the hives of social insects, where all individuals work for the common good with little regard for themselves. Although it has been argued that hives lack collective minds (Nicholls 1982) it should be noted that all such species communicate with chemical signals, and at least in the case of ants chemical trails can be seen as collective cognitive maps distributed in the environment (Chiavlo & Millonas 1995). There may exist degrees of borganisation, and they are tied to how closely the units communicate. Another natural system of interest is the structure of multicellular organisms. The transition from single-celled life to multicellular life can be seen as borganisation. The chemical "minds" of cells are closely connected, and in some cases cells have gap-junctions connecting their cytoplasm or even merge to form a cyncyticum. In a multicellular organism the cells are differentiated into different tissues with different functions, which sometimes include the planned death of cells (such as in the case of the formation of the protective outer layer of skin, the stratum corneum). Differentiation is mediated through chemical signals from other cells which affect the genetic expression of proteins and continued cell behaviour. This examples shows that a borganism can have a complex internal structure. All units do not need to be equal, and specialisation and hierarchical control is a possibility. The third example of a borganism-like system in nature is the human brain. It consists of several parts able to act independently but closely tied together, so closely that normally these divisions go unnoticed. In some cases the system is disturbed and the potential independence of the parts can become apparent. One example is split brain patients whose hemispheres have been disconnected; most of the time this does not cause any noticeable change, but under some circumstances the two sides come into conflict or interfere with each other. Another example is the dissociative states that can occur during hypnosis or traumatic situations where the mind is divided into two or more parts having different access to sensory information and motor control (Hilgard 1977, Putnam 1989). The brain shows that the borganism might not even need to be aware of the units making it up, it can exist on a higher level, perhaps as a metasystem (Turchin & Joslyn 1993).