The linkages stimulate evolution of further snippet sequences

It is surprising how quickly even a small network, gains power from the cumulative effect of the sequences. Individual short sequences […] can seem almost trivial. Each one has a certain interesting, perhaps even important content. But it hardly shakes the Earth, or makes one feel that an enormous tide is coming.
Yet, when we look at a system of half a dozen short sequences […], the situation changes dramatically. These half a dozen sequences, taken together, can have a very big effect on the environment, we are suddenly face to face with a wholly new way of conceiving space and shaping space — and the potential force that exists in these few short sequences, interacting with one another, and calling one another, suddenly appears in a dramatic and powerful light.

And that is what a programming language is. A few simple primitives and their endless arrangement into sequences and sub-sequences is what gives a small language tremendous power.

We see how a whole world, in its essentials, can be defiend by a surprisingly small number of sequences, acting together. This is really remarkable.
Perhaps even more important, I know from experience that this situation then strongly inspires the creation of further sequences, thus causing an expansion of effort, and an expansion of effect which is almost geometric in its increase: As we add a single new sequence, we multiply the spread, reach, and power of the network as a whole. The effect of the few sequences, and the increase of effect inspires the creation of more and more sequences of similar type, so as to cover, cope with, and extend the living character of more and more environments.

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