Looking into several things in the world around us, a process can be seen creating them. A sand dune, a lichen and a small company are looked at. All three are seen to be composed of moving pieces that work together to create a larger form. In each case there is a steady input of energy.
– Myriad sand grains together create the moving form of the sine wave – the universal form of energy.
– Fungal, algal and bacterial partners create the inconspicuous lichen that grows all over the world.
– Differently skilled people and raw materials of specific types interact to create the Worcestershire Sauce Company.
One process can be seen acting in all three of these “things”. Once you recognize it, it can be seen all around us, from waves in the ocean to political movements. Because this process appears on so many levels of our world, it has been given different names. In chemistry and biology it has been called “self-organization”. In human affairs it is called “cooperation”. In this book we will use the word cooperation to describe this because it always involves the harmonization of participants into larger entities. A word from the inorganic world would have the chilling effect of breaking down its human applications into the inorganic world.
Rather than be caught in which way to describe the process, take a while to wonder that such a process exists in all levels of the world that we see around us.
An important aspect of cooperation is the reality of the larger wholes that are created. We humans are the cooperative functioning of trillions of individual cells. A slime mold can exist as thousands of separate, independently living amoebae. Suddenly they all come together to create a single fruiting body that releases spores that drift off to become new slime molds. Is it one or is it many? To study life in this book is to know that it is both.
We will follow the path of cooperation as it creates the larger and larger entities that we call life, even to the single entity of life itself.