The network of sequences
When functioning properly, morphogenetic sequences have, in their nature, a further vital aspect beyond their individual character as sequences. They are linked to each other.
I have, during the course of Book 2, essentially created a correspondence between centers and processes — a correspondence in which each living center is associated with some sequence of repeated actions by which that center is typically created and made living.
I spoke, in the preface, of the idea that the relatively static vision of Book 1 is here replaced by a more dynamic vision in which each living center is understood as the continuing output from a living process.
Now, each living center has life to the extent that it is linked to other living centers (see Book 1, chapter 4). And in just the same way, each sequence that has the capacity to form a certain type of living center, is linked to those other sequences which have the capacity to form the linked centers which provide this center with support.
As each center is created, other centers need to be created, too, strengthened, made more alive. So, the sequences that generate living centers are interdependent, just as the centers themselves are interdependent.
Is this category theory? I hear categories and morphisms.
Now comes a critical point which addresses the linkage among sequences and the network as a whole. The generative process which allows a person to lay out a beautiful house, must — in order to succeed — call other living processes, which play other roles, and have valuable effects on the other aspects of the living structure of the world around the house.
From a relatively small number of component processes, then, a system can be built in which each process triggers the action of other processes. This triggering will ultimately play a decisive role in making the environment whole.
This sounds a lot like the original idea of messaging in object-oriented programming, as conceived by Alan Kay.
A main problem in the environment today is that the fragmentary processes which exist only rarely direct attention to organic, reparative, attention to the whole and there is no way — presently — in which each process triggers the other processes that are needed, together, to take care of the whole.
In the system I am describing each process — as it is initiated — triggers other processes, and the widening circle of processes continues to trigger other processes, and to repair the whole.
The processes themselves take no more than a few pages to describe; each is tiny, so modest that it can be described in a few paragraphs. It is easy to see that a wide system of processes can be economically described, and triggered, and that with almost minimal effort, this outward rippling system of processes can gradually be introduced into society.
#book/The Nature of Order/2 The process of creating life/20 The spread of living processes throughout society#