A metasystem transition requires the cooperation between components. The major obstacle on the way to cooperation is possible evolutionary instability. A and B that produce resources for each other. A 1 which will use resources produced by species B without providing help to the species B . As a result, the cooperation between species becomes broken.
Cooperation is evolutionary stable only if specific restrictions are applied on resource exchange.
A and B may form small groups, so that communication occurs only among members of a group. If a selfish mutation destroys communication within a group, then this group will become less competitive and eventually will be eliminated in the process of group selection . Thus, encapsulation makes a metasystem transition possible. Hierarchical systems have several levels of encapsulation and this makes them more stable than systems that have no restrictions for their interaction. The same is true for homogeneous metasystem transitions.