Metapatterns (reading)

"Out there, in the competitive ecosystems of nature, patterns that 'work' by virtue of their success in specific lifestyle contexts survive to replicate themselves onward into the future, while patterns that don't work, over enough time, terminate." (The Use of Metapatterns for Research into Complex Systems of Teaching, Learning, and Schooling, p6)

This quote stood out to me because it reminded me of Darwin's theory of evolution of 'survival of the fittest.' It was interesting how the authors compared metapatterns we see in everyday life to the biological sciences. Being a biology major, I've never realized that a relationship between metapatterns and biology even existed. It made sense as the authors described in the article however, that evolution is a form of pattern. Nature evolved itself in the way it did because it had been the more successful path to ensure the survival of life on earth. Replication, gene mutations, and the convergence and divergence of other factors that 'worked' all contributed to the evolution of different present day species. Similarly, there is a large variety of different types of metapatterns, and the ones that exist today were the ones that 'worked' well compared to others that may have been unsuccessful. Therefore, their existence and survival greatly depended on their level of success, just like the concept behind evolution.

Lily