Human Metasystem Transition Theory

• Article: Human Metasystem Transition Theory (HMST). By Cadell Last. Journal of Evolution and Technology - Vol. 25 Issue 1 – January 2015 - pgs 1-16

URL = https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284157238_Human_metasystem_transition_HMST_theory

Abstract

"The emergence of new levels of organization has occurred within the human system three times, and has resulted in three broadly defined levels of higher control, producing three broadly defined levels of group selection (e.g., band/tribe, chiefdom/kingdom, nation-state/international). These are “Human Metasystem Transitions” (HMST). Throughout these HMST several common system-level patterns have manifested that are fundamental to understanding the nature and evolution of the human system, as well as our potential future development. First, HMST have been built around the control of three mostly distinct primary energy sources (e.g., hunting, agriculture, industry). Second, the control of new energy sources has always been achieved and stabilized by utilizing the evolutionary emergence of a more powerful information-processing medium (e.g., language, writing, printing press). Third, new controls emerge with the capability of organizing energy flows over larger expanses of space in shorter durations of time: bands/tribes controlled regional space and stabilized for hundreds of thousand of years, chiefdoms/kingdoms controlled semi-continental expanses of space and stabilized for thousands of years, and nation-states control continental expanses of space and have stabilized for centuries.

(https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284157238_Human_metasystem_transition_HMST_theory)

Excerpts

Cadell Last:

"From the application of metasystem transition (MST) theory to the human system, we can identify three major system transitions throughout the evolution of our genus Homo. On each occasion a new level of organization has emerged, which has been stabilized by higher controls and higher group selection.

These metasystems broadly include systems commonly referred to as “band/tribe,” “chiefdom/kingdom,” and “nation-state/international” organizations (see Figure 2).

The structures of these organizations have been stabilized by the control of three mostly distinct primary energy sources: hunting, agriculture, and industry.

• Band/tribe organizations manifested around the control of hunted and cooked animal meat: the Pyrian Regime.

• Chiefdom/kingdom organizations manifested around the control of domesticated plant and animal resources: the Agrian Regime.

• Nation-state/international organizations manifested around the control of ancient biomass (or fossil fuels): the Carbian Regime (see Niele 2005).

The control of these energy sources was always organized through the utilization of a new information medium to connect previously disparate subsystems.

• During the transition to hunting organizations, modern language emerged to facilitate the formation of larger group sizes, which were capable of producing the social and technical expertise necessary for hunting to become a stable and reliable energy source (Dunbar 2003).

• During the transition to agricultural organizations, written language functioned to track, collect, and stabilize a coordinated large-scale economy fundamentally built on domesticated plants and animals (Cooper 2004).

• During the transition to industrial organizations, the printing press emerged allowing for the flourishing of scientific and technical expertise necessary for the exploitation and stabilization of fossil fuels, and consequently, the construction of the modern world (Niele 2005).

All of these human metasystem transitions (HMST) can be characterized by subsystems of lower control becoming integrated under new higher control regimes.

• In the hunting transitions, parties and groups became integrated into bands and tribes.

• In the agricultural transitions, bands and tribes became integrated or subsumed into chiefdoms and kingdoms.

• In the industrial transition, chiefdoms and kingdoms became integrated or subsumed into the formation of the modern nation-state.

These are the most basic example of both the hierarchical and developmentally constrained nature of metasystems.

Metasystems are hierarchical because they emerge from integration at lower levels and developmentally constrained because they manifest similar organizational properties at each level. In this framework of thinking about the human system, the modern nation-state sits atop an ancient evolutionary HMST control hierarchy of ever-more diversely integrated subsystems.

Throughout this process of higher subsystem integration, the stabilization of a new HMST appears to compress spatial and temporal restrictions on human action, both within the control system and within society as a whole. The highest metasystem controls display an ever-broader extension of control over larger regions of space, and they can accomplish this spatial feat in shorter durations of time (i.e., physical space-time barriers to human action are consistently and progressively reduced).

Consequently, there is a trend toward accelerated metasystem emergence, as the space-time reach of human action progressively increases.

• The hunting transition occurred over a period of hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of years,

• the agricultural transition occurred over a period of thousands of years,

• and the industrial transition has been occurring over a period of centuries.

This metasystem process has resulted in more complex human organizations directly and coherently controlling more of the Earth’s surface, faster. For individuals, the consequence is the emergence of systems that increasingly allow for action that is global (spatial) and instant (temporal). Therefore, in regards to both space and time, higher metasystem controls appear to facilitate a culturally and technologically mediated conquest of dimensionality."

(https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284157238_Human_metasystem_transition_HMST_theory)