A search for ‘the classic structural coupling diagrams (which inspired the logo for my forthcoming podcast series, Transduction: systems, cybernetics and complexity I have come to sing songs to your cat, featured below), led me to two lovely pieces from two lovely websites, which I will list separately.
See below for the pieces…
An Introduction to “Maturana’s” Biology
Lloyd Fell and David Russell
Lloyd Fell, David Russell & Alan Stewart (eds)
An Introduction to “Maturana’s” Biology
Seized by Agreement, Swamped by Understanding
structural coupling: a reciprocal connection
niche, medium, and environment
How do we know what the niche of a living being is?
We can only know to the extent that we are able to observe what aspects of the environment the living system responds to. The living system determines its own niche according to its connection with its medium. Whatever it does not connect with (respond to) is essentially “not there” for the being, it does not see the environment, ie. the “surround” of its niche.
Of course we may not see what the living being is interacting with. We may not see its niche, fully, as it may exist outside our ken. We can sometimes impute that there is “more” from behaviour, as for example when a dog is obviously smelling something we cannot sense.
source:
structural coupling: a reciprocal connection
