So instead of a linear way of thinking that 'this causes this', we have a nonlinear way of thinking not only that this causes this, but, for example, that both the nut and the squirrel eating it are affected and changed by the action of the squirrel munching on the nut.

And both the nut and the squirrel -- two systems -- are part of the greater, more complex systems enclosing them. And each larger system is more complex than the one 'below' it. The nut is the simpler system in this short section of relationships - it is a small yet organized system full of cells and nutrients and time and structure, among other things. The squirrel is a more complex system - it is a system full of squirrel thoughts, the mechanics of mobility, of cells and nutrients and time and structure. The forest where the squirrel eats the nut is an even more complex system - it is a system consisting of many kinds of life, soil, air patterns, cells, nutrients, time and structure. And don't forget: the forest changes because of the squirrel eating the nut just as the squirrel and the nut are changed in their relationship. One can continue on with these images, noting that the forest is within the ecological system -- which is within the earth system -- the earth is within the planetary system, and so on up through greater levels of complexity, pattern and order.

All of these systems change and are changed by the other systems within and encompassing them. All of them are interrelated and interdependent of one another.

The form and structure of the forest does not change, nor the squirrel's form and structure, nor the nut's. Each system, when affected by / affecting change, just self-organizes and adjusts itself to encompass the change. If the change has negative consequences for the squirrel - the nut makes the squirrel sick each time the squirrel eats a nut of that kind - it uses this data, or feedback, to reorganize, to evolve, and to change its codes into a slightly higher level of complexity so as to take this new information into account. The squirrel now avoids certain nuts and chooses others, and all runs smoothly again. The new feedback of all nuts now tasting great is data that reinforces the new pattern by which the squirrel can function.

And perhaps the squirrel's new pattern and new codes will change the forest, as now most of the bitter tasting nuts will now grow into trees previously rare in this particular forest. Maybe deer will love eating the bark of these trees and change their paths through the forest, and so on.