Maximum Power Principle

Discussion

Dave Mc Leod:

"The Maximum Power Principle does not inherently favor either competition or cooperation. Power is maximized in various ways, depending on context and circumstance. On the downside of a pulsing paradigm, cooperation is often a better strategy with which to maximize power.

Here are Odum's actual words:

- Societies compete for economic survival by Lotka's principle, which says that systems win and dominate that maximize their useful total power from all sources and flexibly distribute this power toward needs affecting survival. The programs of forests, seas, cities, and countries survive that maximize their system's power for useful purposes. The first requirement is that opportunities to gain inflowing power be maximized, and the second requirement is that energy utilization be effective and not wasteful as compared to competitors or alternatives.

Charles Hall is one of Odum's most notable students. Hall has stated, "An early problem with the maximum power hypothesis was that it seemed to be in competition with the standard view of evolution, based on fitness, put forth by population ecologists (Mayr, 1982). In this view, fitness is defined as those morphological, behavioral and physiological patterns that most lead to reproductive success, essentially the survival of grandchildren. A problem with this conventional view is the circularity of the argument that follows. Question: what is fit? Answer: that which survives and reproduces. What, then, will survive and reproduce? The answer: those organisms that are most fit. This is, of course, a tautology but it has been repeated many times in biology. Maximum power, or energetics in general, offers a resolution to this tautology: that which will be selected for is that which generates the most power, because the surplus energy that is thus generated can be diverted to whatever contingency requires it, and that energy that is left over can be diverted into reproduction." (C.A.S. Hall, "The Continuing Importance of Maximum Power" [1])

(Fb, February 2020)