This volume contains the papers presented at the International Symposium on "Synergetics - From Microscopic to Macroscopic Order", held at the Wissenschafts kolleg z~ Berlin (Institute for Advanced Study Berlin), on July 4-8, 1983. Further more, it contains a contribution of T. Ohta, who unfortunately could not partici pate in this meeting, on the evolution of mUltigene families. The papers discuss the evolution and the function of ordered structures from small microscopic scales up to large macroscopic dimensions. On the one hand, these structures derive from physical or biological systems; on the other hand, they also affect economic, sociological and philosophical questions. I would like to thank the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin for the extraordinary support and hospitality during my one year's stay there as a fellow, which made the planning, preparation and organization of this symposium possible. I would also like to acknowledge the work of B. Fritsch and D. Dorner who actively participated in this undertaking. I am grateful to Professor Haken, the founder of synergetics, whose participation in the planning and styling of the concept of the conference was essential. I am especially thankful to Mrs. U. Monigatti for her indefatigable help with the prep aration and organization of the conference. The financial support was provided by the "Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft". Berlin, November 1983 E. Frehland Contents Some Introductory Remarks on Synergetics By H. Haken ................................ , ................................ .

Inhalt
Some Introductory Remarks on Synergetics.- I Order, Chaos, Indeterminancies.- Time Pattern Transitions in Biochemical Processes.- Chaotic Behaviours Observed in Homogeneous Chemical Systems.- Wave-Number Selection in Rotating Couette-Taylor Flow.- Periodic and Chaotic Patterns in Selected Quantum Optical Systems.- Chaos in Lasers.- The Falling Pencil and Superfluorescence: Macroscopic Indeterminacies After the Decay of Unstable Equilibria.- II Ordered Structures and Processes in Biomembranes.- On the Formation of Transient Order in Biological Membranes.- Generalized Moment Description of Brownian Dynamics in Biological Systems.- Nonequilibrium Current Noise Generated by Ordered Ion Transport Processes in Biological Membranes.- The Molecular Machine of Photosynthesis-Physico-Chemical Aspects.- III Evolution of Structures.- Polynucleotide Replication and Biological Evolution.- The Evolution Strategy. A Mathematical Model of Darwinian Evolution.- Multigene Families and their Implications for Evolutionary Theory.- Evolution of Biothermodynamic Systems.- Self-Organising Dynamic Models of Human Systems.- IV Social Sciences.- Some Applications of Basic Ideas and Models of Synergetics to Sociology.- A Synergetic Approach to Energy-Oriented Models of Socio-Economic- Technological Problems.- New Synergisms in Socio-Economic Systems: More Questions than Answers.- On the Entropy of Economic Systems.- V Complex Systems.- Death - From Microscopic to Macroscopic Disorder.- Local Synaptic Modification Can Lead to Organized Connectivity Patterns in Associative Memory.- The Organization of Action in Time.- New Problems for an Old Brain - Synergetics, Cognition and Evolutionary Epistemology.- Index of Contributors.