Social groups and chaotic state transitions: homage to Walter J. Freeman III

In this article, we pay homage to one of the most prominent neuroscientists ever: Walter Jackson Freeman III. He has designed a perspective called Nonlinear Neurodynamics of the brain that, perhaps is the most advanced and veridical approximation to the study of the brain dynamics. More interesting for this blog is the connection between his neurophysiological discoveries and its applications to the social dynamics o formation of social groups (see his book, "Societies of Brains", 1995). According to Freeman (1995), the cerebral cortex switches abruptly from one basin of attraction to another, each transition involving learning. Therefore, each brain creates its own trajectory which is not directly accessible by any other brain. The question is: how can several brains be shaped by learning so as to form cooperative groups for survival and reproduction? Large numbers of neurons follow chaotics dynamics expressing global state transitions (sleep to waking, etc.) and one class of state transitions in brains provides for the formation of social groups. Brains process meaning. But this intentional mechanism implies, in a certain sense, the isolation of each brain. With respect to energy and information each brain is an open system but with respect to meaning it is a closed system. However Nature has evolved powerful methods for the social learning and social cooperation. The discovery of the means for inducing these forms of learning can be understood as a chaotic state transition in brain dynamics like, for instance, the rapid adaptation of young adults for their new roles in state transitions from child to adulthood.

Synergetics and social cognition

The term "synergetics" was introduced by Hermann Haken, pioneer in the study of the laser, on 1970. It means the science of cooperation and can be considered as a science of orderly, self-organized, collective behavior subject to general laws. Therefore, the aim of synergetics is to establish the natural laws on which the self-organization of systems is based.

In physics there are different aggregate states-solid, liquid, gaseous-called phases, and the transitions between them are called phase transitions. The three phases differ only in the arrangement of the molecules. If we heat a layer of liquid in a dish from below and if the temperature difference berween top and bottom is only slight, there will be no motion of the liquid on a macrolevel. But when the temperature difference is further increased the liquid begins to move macroscopically in a quite orderly manner in the form of rolls. The curious fact is that such hot drops do not rise irregularly but in an orderly manner. Nature discovers that it can transport the heated parts upward more efficiently when they join in a regular motion. If we add the individual motions of the rolls, we obtain a hexagonal pattern. The liquid rises in the center of the hexagons and sinks along the outside:

Once the choice is made the alternatives are out of the question, and the choice cannot be reversed. Minor fluctuations decide the nature of the choice. Once it has been made, all particles must accept it. Increasingly complex motion patterns can be created by self-organization, that is, and employing the language of synergetics, new order parameters succeed each other.

Nowadays, many concepts of the synergetics, like "attractor", "bifurcation", "fluctuation", "synchronization effect", "symmetry broken"... are useful for the application to social sciences. For instance, to social conflicts. According to Haken, conflicts exist that offer two equivalent solutions in which society resolves the conflict for individuals merely displacing it. Do the courts favor the mother or the father in the child´s upbringing? (Haken, 1984). The symmetry must be broken by the judge. The advantages and disadvantages of one solution are balanced against those of the other.