Morphogenesis and the Emergence of Meaning

Abstract

As we have said in Chap. 1, the frontier between order and chaos appears to be able to offer, instead of punctiform mutations, an articulated variability, also capable of guiding the biomolecular systems to unfold themselves and to manifest hidden potentialities living at deep level progressively. This unfolding takes place, in particular, in accordance with the appearance of the new textures of constraints by means of which the selective pressures finally force, in a more sophisticated way, the available complexity. From a biological point of view the alternative is not between a sole environment (Darwin) and many environments (Dover), but between a changing environment, full of potentialities and unexpressed constraints (able to utilize, moreover, the varied complexity in order to tune its mechanisms of selection) and an environment, on the contrary, devoid of an autonomous and self-organizing internal dynamics.