Metasystem
A metasystem is a higher-level system that includes one or more systems as subsystems and performs their coordination, management, development, or reflection. Metasystems ensure the integration, stability, and evolution of complex systems by organizing supra-systemic connections and processes.
General Characteristics
Metasystems have the following characteristics:
- An organizational level that surpasses the level of the included subsystems;
- The formation of new holistic properties that are not reducible to the properties of individual components (Emergence);
- The coordination, regulation, and purposeful development of subsystems;
- The maintenance of the system's integrity and adaptability in changing conditions.
Metasystems establish the rules for the functioning of subsystems, ensure their interaction, distribute functions, and coordinate their behavior in relation to the goals of the overall system.
Metasystem Transitions
A metasystem transition is the evolutionary process of forming a new metasystem from a multitude of less organized or independent systems. It includes:
- The integration of elements into a stable structure;
- The emergence of a new level of control and regulation;
- The appearance of new functions and mechanisms for holistic coordination.
Metasystem transitions are a mechanism for the complexification of systems throughout the evolution of nature, society, and technology, reflecting the principles of development through the formation of new organizational levels.
Metasystems in Various Fields
Biology
In biology, each level of life forms a metasystem in relation to the elements of the previous level:
- A cell as a metasystem of biochemical processes;
- A multicellular organism as a metasystem of specialized cells;
- Social animal communities as metasystems of individual organisms.
Evolutionary transitions, such as the emergence of multicellularity and eukaryotic cells, are examples of metasystem transformations.
Sociology
In sociological systems, metasystems include:
- Cultural and social structures—in relation to individual behavior;
- State institutions—in relation to social subsystems and groups.
Social metasystems shape norms, institutions, and collective behavior, ensuring the alignment of interests among multiple actors.
Engineering
In engineering disciplines, metasystems are complexes of the system of systems class—combinations of functionally and organizationally independent subsystems:
- Transportation networks;
- Power supply management systems;
- Cyber-physical systems (e.g., "smart cities").
Metasystems ensure the compatibility, interaction, and goal-oriented activity of subsystems within a common architecture.
Informatics
In informatics, metasystems include:
- Operating systems—managing multiple applications;
- Distributed networks—as superstructures over computational nodes;
- Orchestration systems—managing cloud infrastructures;
- Concepts of metaprogramming and meta-learning—managing code and learning processes.
Metasystems in informatics create levels of abstraction for effectively managing the complexity of distributed and intelligent processes.
Significance of Metasystems
Understanding metasystems is essential for:
- Analyzing the structure of complex systems;
- Modeling coordination and management processes;
- Designing stable and adaptive system complexes;
- Researching the mechanisms of system evolution and development.
The metasystem approach allows for identifying the principles of integrating elements into a whole and explaining the emergence of new organizational levels in nature, society, and technology.