  Luhmann (1984) defined society as a communication system which is
structurally coupled to, but not an aggregate of, human action systems. The
communication system is then considered as self-organizing ("autopoietic"), as
are human actors. Communication systems can be studied by using Shannon's
(1948) mathematical theory of communication. The update of a network by action
at one of the local nodes is then a well-known problem in artificial
intelligence (Pearl 1988). By combining these various theories, a general
algorithm for probabilistic structure/action contingency can be derived. The
consequences of this contingency for each system, its consequences for their
further histories, and the stabilization on each side by counterbalancing
mechanisms are discussed, in both mathematical and theoretical terms. An
empirical example is elaborated.
