Living Matter of the First and Second Orders in the Biosphere

Abstract

While the boundaries of the biosphere are primarily determined by the field of vital existence, there is no doubt that a field of vital stability extends beyond its boundaries. ²⁰¹ We do not know how far beyond the confines of the biosphere it can go because of uncertainties about adaptation, which is obviously a function of time, and manifests itself in the biosphere in strict relation to how many millions of years an organism has existed. Since we do not have such lengths of time at our disposal and are currently unable to compensate for them in our experiments, we cannot accurately assess the adaptive power of organisms. ²⁰²

Article Footnote

Weyl (1966) developed this same concept in terms of what he called the “life boundary.”

See the discussion of the adaptive power of organisms in Cuénot, 1925. Recent experiments may in fact give us tools with which to accurately assess the adaptive power of organisms (Losos et al. 1997; Case, 1997).