Adaptive systems are systems that have open boundaries to interact with the external and internal environment. The difference between adaptive systems and systemic systems is that the first ones are driven by taxonomic procedures.
Taxonomic procedures are those that are ruled by an ontological logic that has to be followed in order to achieve the planned results. Nature is an adaptive system.
We consider three levels of artificial adaptive systems:
1) Taxonomy driven systems
Taxonomy driven systems are those that depend on human action to work.
2) Robots
Robots are entities that can deal themselves with the feedback of the environment to achieve an objective.
3) Artificial life systems
Artificial life systems are those that have a collective unconscious that makes them influence the environment. Organizations and countries belong to this type.
Businesses are typical adaptive systems. They are entities that interact with the environment having the characteristics of a complex system but with an implicit and explicit duty to produce a predefined result. We use the word “business” as a synonym of “work”. Healthcare is a paradigmatic case of dealing with adaptive systems.