linked to from footnotes file: n_miscGlossary.php#Beings.
Metasystems are formed by the integration of initially independent components, such as molecules (e.g. in hypercycles); cellular entities (e.g. in bacteria and eukaryote life), cells (e.g. multicellular organisms and social amoebae); and individuals (e.g jellyfish, and ants); into new, goal-directed individuals acting in a coordinated way to protect themselves and reproduce (e.g. through endocrine, immune and neural systems, or through 'symbolic thought' etc.)refs
A hypercycle is an abstract model of organization of self-replicating molecules connected in a cyclic, autocatalytic manner. It was introduced in an ordinary differential equation form by the Nobel Prize winner Manfred Eigen in 1971 and subsequently further extended in collaboration with Peter Schuster. It was proposed as a solution to the error threshold problem encountered during modelling of replicative molecules that hypothetically existed on the primordial Earth. As such, it explained how life on Earth could have begun using only relatively short genetic sequences, which in theory were too short to store all essential information. The hypercycle is a special case of the replicator equation. The most important properties of hypercycles are autocatalytic growth competition between cycles, once-for-ever selective behaviour, utilization of small selective advantage, rapid evolvability, increased information capacity, and selection against parasitic branches.
see: Wikipedia, "Hypercycles".