Interdependence of sequences

In order to make the system of living processes work best, what is necessary, above all, is that the linked processes actually are initiated when needed. How, then, can the linkages be activated?
In order to see it clearly, it may be helpful to compare the system of environment-creating processes, with the system of sequences we have come to think of as “arithmetic”.
Naively, we think of arithmetic as consisting of a few separate processes, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division. A couple of more sophisticated processes include taking powers and taking factorials. These might all be though of as independent processes, which we bring into play when we need them, essentially when we feel like using them.
In this view, arithmetic would be a system of isolated, unlinked sequences whose use is voluntary. But the real nature of arithmetic is not like that. The sequences are linked. Each process calls on other processes.
Division, for example, as a process, calls on multiplication at certain times, and on subtraction at times. Raising a number to a power draws on multiplication: or if we work with several powers that are multiplied, it calls on the process of addition.
The fact that one process calls on other processes is not voluntary. It is essential to the nature of arithmetic. Arithmetic does not work unless we recognize that each process is, in part, defined by the way and pattern in which it calls on other processes. That is simply the way that arithmetic works.
If we want arithmetic, we must learn the way the different processes are linked to call on one another, and use them accordingly. If we do not do it, the system does not work, and we cannot get good results.

#book/The Nature of Order/2 The process of creating life/20 The spread of living processes throughout society#