Arther Koestler introduced his theory of holarchies in his book, _The Ghost and the Machine_, published in 1967. This theory deeply influenced Alan Kay's design of Smalltalk, which introduced the concept of object-oriented programming.
This theory was derived from the observation that matter was comprised from more increasing complex patterns, where each piece was a whole onto itself, what he called Holons.
Software developers working within this new framework were able to creatively approach problems differently, using Holonic Thinking that allowed them to develop significantly faster, unleashing new possibility for creative computing. From this experience the foundations were laid for what was to become Extreme Programming (XP) and later Agile.