linked to from footnotes file: n_miscGlossary.php#Beings.
Metasystems are modular, fundamental entities, formed by the integration of initially independent components into new, goal-directed individuals that act in coordinated ways to protect themselves and reproduce. And, although the term, modular, is not generally used to describe living systems, it seems appropriate for many forms of BEING.
The organization and behaviour of modular, BIOPHYSICAL BEINGS are co-ordinated through BROADCASTING; in tightly bonded systems, through ENDOSEMIOSIS, for instance endocrine, and neural systems, or in heterogenous systems, through EXOSEMIOSIS, for instance vocal or other physical or contextual cues, or through systems analogous to these, such as semaphore, radio, television, or the internet.
BIOPHYSICAL metasystems can perhaps be seen to become new, goal-directed BEINGS both in their union and division; BEINGS that divide themselves to reproduce, such as jellyfish, or bacteria; or single cells that come together and specialize into multicellular forms, like social amoeba, or single cells that divide and specialize into forms like humans or plants; or BEINGS that assemble into societies and ecosystems, like coral and reefs, or colonies and hives like ants and bees or humans and deer.
The hypercycle is a cycle of connected, self-replicating macromolecules linked so that each catalyses the creation of its successor, with the last molecule catalysing the first. In such a manner, the cycle reinforces itself. .. each molecule is a subject for self-replication. The resultant system is a new level of self-organization that incorporates both cooperation and selfishness. .. it explained how life on Earth could have begun using only relatively short genetic sequences, which in theory are too short to store all essential information. .. hypercycles could originate naturally and .. are subject to evolution .. not only does the system gain information, but its information content can be improved. .. In 2012, the first experimental proof for the emergence of a cooperative network among fragments of self-assembling ribozymes was published, .. this experiment proves the existence of cooperation among the ribozymes, (but is not an experimental proof of the hypercycle).