2. Building P2P infrastructures
A CAS can be described as a network of interrelated agents able to adapt to changes in the environment (Levin, 2002).
Such a system can also be considered autopoietic if it generates the necessary components to preserve its autonomy as a
discrete unit. These two concepts (CAS and autopoiesis) can be used to describe a social system: we might use the CAS concept
if we assume that the system evolves dynamically and is built on networked interactions between social agents; we
might use an autopoietic perspective if we consider that those components which are necessary to preserve social interaction
(language, media, markets, law or technology) are produced by the system itself, that is, by the collaborative work of
social agents.
In this section we shall focus on CAS. A more detailed explanation of the concept of social autopoiesis will be presented in
Section 4.
The correlation of CAS performance and two independent attributes (heterogeneity and decentralization) has been analyzed
with computational models (Gonzalez-Rodriguez and Hernandez-Carrion, 2014). The impact of those variables on
social evolution has been tested with the simulation of artificial societies. According to that work, the adaptability of a system
would be related to the way information is produced and propagated across the social agents. In other words, the more
decentralized and heterogeneous the system is, the better would adapt to dynamic environments.
Hence, it seems that knowledge production within a social system would be increased with a higher degree of functional
heterogeneity and structural decentralization. The former would allow for a greater diversity of available strategies, cultural
values, identities and behaviors which will benefit the fitness of the system. The latter would utilize and propagate the diversity
of available knowledge through P2P exchanges and the relevant infrastructures. For example, free thought leads to heterogeneity but it would be useless without free speech and free press. With homogenization policies, production of innovative
ideas is reduced; while with centralized communication structures, new ideas are prevented from being shared,
propagated and implemented.
If we translate these hypotheses considering social systems as a subset of CAS, we could assume that a better development
of human societies would be achieved with a gradual decentralization of communication structures and the preservation
of human diversity. This hypothetic scenario is what we have named a P2P paradigm. In a P2P paradigm we would
observe these characteristics: