Chapter X
Information and Sustainability
John A Broadbent
University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
John.Broadbent@uts.edu.au
X.1. Introduction
Boulding(1966) may have first linked knowledge and information with evolution,
when he proposed that:
 information and knowledge alone are capable of producing an evolutionary process
towards complexity and self-consciousness(p 5)
 with the acquisition of self-consciousness, the human evolutionary process ‘has
become at least in part teleological’ (p4)
Boulding’s views retain currency almost forty years later, and were taken as a basis
for this inquiry. In this paper selected literatures are juxtaposed to elaborate the nexus
between information and sustainable human futures(i.e. sociocultural evolution). The
aim is to clarify the role that information could play in achieving such futures, and to
suggest a next step.
X.2. Sustainability
Tainter(1988) extensively studied the fate of human civilizations and found that
societies have traditionally addressed problems through added complexity. This,
historically, has meant societies with ‘more parts, different kinds of parts, more social
differentiation, more inequality, and more kinds of centralization and control’ (p. 37).
In consequence we now have the most structurally and organizationally complex
societies in human history. According to Tainter(1995), ‘complexity strategies’ run
their course with diminishing returns until their costs match and then, left unattended,
surpass their benefits. Once investment in further complexity becomes unattractive, a
society becomes liable to collapse. Tainter(1996) applied these findings to current
societies and concluded that complexification would likely continue and need greater
or more efficient energy use. He developed three scenarios for the future of global
civilization:
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 Cultural collapse, with cultural and economic simplification, lower energy
demands, and a massive loss of population over one or two generations
 A ‘green’ future, which he believed ‘will come about only if severe, prolonged
hardship in industrial nations makes it attractive, and if economic growth and
consumerism can be removed from the realm of ideology’(p 73)
 A probable future, with greater investments in problem solving, increasing overall
complexity, and greater or more efficient energy use
Tainter and colleagues(Allen, Tainter & Hoekstra, 1999) refined this view by
distinguishing two forms of complexity - structural and organizational. While the
former was largely the basis of Tainter’s earlier work, organizational
complexification is seen as a preferable response to problem-solving as it redefines
society in relation to its resource needs. As Information Age technologies generate
organizational benefits, they offer relief from societal problems which - the authors
believe - will last until these technologies mature. Allen et al see a growing need to
adopt whole-of-systems approaches over long time-frames, with better quality
information about large-scale difficult issues. These are primarily organizational
elaborations which should offer further sociocultural sustainability.
X.3. Synergy
The contribution which Information Age technologies make to societal problemsolving is evident from the synergies they provide. Corning(2003: 2) defines synergy
as ‘the combined, or cooperative, effects produced by the relationships among various
forces, particles, elements, parts, or individuals in a given context – effects that are
not otherwise possible’. He suggests that synergistic effects play a major role in the
evolution of cooperation and complexity in both nature and society, by improving the
chances of survival and reproduction. He believes that new ways to exploit synergy
have underpinned sociocultural evolution. Progressively through time the synergistic
frameworks of societies have increased in size, complexity and diversity. Synergies
entail behavioural innovation, which Corning considers a ‘pacemaker’ of evolution,
leading to greater functional competence and complexity. He views behavioural
change as a Neo-Lamarckian process, and suggests that humans may be seen as
“intentional systems”, with purposiveness a major force in sociocultural evolution.
Information Age technologies are fundamentally about improved information flows
in societies and their constituent individuals, so generating social capital.
Corning(2003) interprets human evolution largely in terms of “packages” of
interrelated synergies, elements of which are technological, in similar vein to
Diamond(1997). If one or more essential elements are missing from these
“packages”, an entire change process may be jeopardised. Evolutionary “hotspots”
have occurred in a shifting geography over at least 10,000 years. These may be high
energy systems, which emerge when the potentials for synergy are systemically
realized. Such synergistic coherences make possible the emergence of strikingly
different cultural forms. It seems likely that one or more evolutionary “hotspots” are
now emerging in global society in response to Information Age technologies.
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X.4. Merged Evolution
Turning to the future, we can interpret the desire of Allen et al(1999) to adopt
whole-of-systems approaches to societal problem-solving through the work of
Goonatilake(1991, 1999), who considered the evolutionary implications of mergers
between three streams of information – biological, cultural, and technological. His
studies suggest that information technology and, more so, biotechnology - being
much more malleable and generic than their precedent technologies - will have
considerable impact on biological and cultural destinies through intense mergings of
the three information streams. Goonatilake concludes that this process will be so
transformative that: ‘one form of history is at an end, another entirely new history
now begins’(p 195).
Goonatilake(1999) believes that synergies across all information flows will permit
a remarkable acceleration in human evolution. He also observes that responses of
different cultures to incoming technologies are greatly influenced by their social
fabrics. This suggests that there will be considerable geographical difference in the
responsiveness of societies to merged evolution, a point essentially made already in
respect of information technology. Despite globalization, it seems likely that cultures
will remain diverse enough to respond differently to the Information Age and the
technological transitions which follow.
This diversity will offer important
evolutionary advantages for humanity as a whole.
Goonatilake’s insights are important because they presage significantly greater
synergies than those gained from Information Age technologies alone. Through very
considerable organizational and structural improvements, and energy efficiencies,
such synergies should offer sociocultural sustainability well into the 21st century.
X.5. Information
The ability of socioculture to cope with the greater complexity of ‘merged’
evolution will closely depend on the deployment of information systems across
evolutionary lineages. This point is now examined more fully, initially through the
work of Beach(2003), who modelled systems of varying complexity across biology
and socioculture. An interpretation of his basic model follows:
Figure.1. Dynamic system with evolving information module
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In this figure, evolution of only the information system is shown although, in
reality, all elements of the model evolve conjointly. Metabolism is interpreted as the
transformations brought about based on information in the system.
According to Beach, a system is limited by the capabilities of its information
module. Changes in the information module are a primary cause of major transitions,
because they create enhanced information storage capability and hence greater
evolutionary possibility. Beach also notes that there has been a temporal shift from
the individual to increasingly higher-level group cooperation, in both biology(single
celled to multicellular organisms) and socioculture(hunter gatherers to urban
societies), due to more effective information modules. This process continues today
through the emergence of higher-capacity symbolic information systems. Such
developments make possible cooperative behaviour in ever higher-level group
structures. Beach believes that we are still early in this process. He predicts that the
changes will be equal to, or greater than, those in any previous biological or
sociocultural transformation. He anticipates that the change process will be driven by
increasingly efficient algorithms, making possible the acquisition of information at
unprecedented rates. Such insights again underline the very significant synergies of
the Information Age technologies and the organisational complexification they allow.
X.6 A proposal
X.6.1 Introduction
From these readings, the merging of information lineages could be the next
significant development in sociocultural information systems, so assisting responses
to critical global problems. This development is conceptualized below:
Figure.2. Merging dynamic systems, and emergence of a common information
module
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Giving substance to Goonatilake’s(1999) vision would be beyond current
capabilities, although the building blocks for such a project exist today. A likeness to
what is envisaged is found in current efforts in systems biology to integrate
information flows from genomics, proteomics and metabolomics to enhance
personalized medicine (Carney, 2003). An important distinction is that whereas
systems biology engages with substantially closed information systems (organisms),
this proposal is concerned with informationally very open ones(see Allen et al, 2003).
X.6.2. Philosophical considerations
An appropriate ontology is considered essential in the creation of information
systems. Progress in this respect is most evident in medical and bioinformatics,
where information systems of remarkable complexity are being created. For example,
the Foundation Model of Anatomy has been proposed as a basis for aligning
ontologies from macroscopic anatomy to the representation of cells, subcellular
entities and biological macromolecules(Rosse & Mejino, 2003). This ontology
currently has 70,000 distinct anatomical concepts, which are associated with more
than 110,000 terms and are related to each other by over 1.5 million instantiations of
over 170 kinds of relationships. Creation of an ontology spanning two or more
information lineages is hard to envision at present. In its fullness, its complexity
would be many orders of magnitude beyond existing models, and it would encompass
many areas of knowledge for which no generally agreed ontologies yet exist.
If it is not yet possible to generate ontologies which span different information
lineages, epistemological frameworks exist which do so, based on evolutionary
principles (Laszlo, 1996). These could be used to create frameworks for early
generations of information systems. This approach would not only help discriminate
between the pluralist views which inform competing evolutionary epistemologies at
present, but might also accumulate the knowledge needed to inform future ontological
frameworks.
Hood(in Carney, 2003) emphasizes the importance of integrating an interpretive,
iterative, hypothesis-driven approach with discovery science reductive and empirical
in nature. This task would also confront any realization of Goonatilake’s vision.
X.6.3. Technological considerations
Recognition that complex information systems exist in increasingly dynamic and
unpredictable environments makes the intentional introduction of adaptive and
evolutionary capabilities into such systems desirable. The goal is to create
information systems which remain aligned with the larger systems they serve. Patel
and colleagues(2003) provide insights into how this might be done.
Molidor et al(2003) point out that systems biology gives rise to critical issues in
respect of the storage, normalization, integration, analysis, visualization of data, and
data mining. The increasing complexity of information systems also creates a need
for better decision-support for users. The quality of these systems is clearly critical
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and there is some evidence that ensembles of 3-5 different decision-support tools are
preferable to a “single best model”(West et al, 2004).
X.6.4. Collaboration
A project of this scale would require effective collaboration both across major sectors
of society(e.g. business, industry, academia, government)and across many disciplines.
X.6.5. Ethical, legal, social issues(ELSI)
There is no doubt that the increasing scale of human intervention reflected in
developments of this kind generate serious ethical, legal and social issues. These
should be addressed in a timely and appropriate manner within both the project
context and the wider community(Rigby, 2004).
X.7. Conclusions
While information is not seen as the sole guarantor of human sustainability, it is
clearly a core consideration - as it has been throughout sociocultural history. Our
understanding of the role of information in sociocultural evolution has increased
greatly since Boulding recognized its importance some forty years ago. Its essential
synonymy with complexity places informatization at the heart of sociocultural
sustainability. While socioculture has created the means to meet its informational
needs throughout history, we may today be on the cusp of another huge elaboration
both in our informational needs and our ability to meet them. The effective
realization of this transformation may be among the most pressing and challenging
tasks of the next two decades, for this is the respite which the current Information Age
technologies seem to offer.
While Goonatilake’s(1999) challenge to merge those informational lineages which
have underpinned the evolution of our cosmos through its various eras seem well
beyond human capabilities at present, less ambitious interim projects may be feasible.
Insofar as complex systems are hierarchically organized, it would seem useful to
develop the competencies advocated by Goonatilake initially in lower level systems.
From the experiences and skills thus gained, it should be possible to move to
progressively higher levels, while refining methodologies and knowledge, until
engaging with the most critical and complex issues of sociocultural sustainability.
The long-term goal of initiatives of this kind is to provide designers with
information environments rich enough to inform their design processes, which does
not seem to be the case today. For example, Lenz & Kuhn(2004) report failure rates
of 50-80% in business process reengineering. Keeley(2003) estimates that the
average firm succeeds at innovation a mere 4% of the time. Such low success rates
cannot be supported indefinitely by societies nearing the limits of their sustainability.
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