Living processes

The freedom, joy of spirit, and benign adaptation which has occurred in most of the examples, comes from the way a simple (and therefore unhampered) process (sequence of steps) is able to interact with environmental conditions. Thus what I have referred to as the “rough, rambling” quality of so much that is good in the environment, comes from the light-hearted, yet profound adaptation which such a simple stepwise process encourages, and which a more formal or controlled design process cannot achieve.

It seems to me, indeed, that the kindlier, and more engaging morphology which appears in the world when living processes are at work, is what is needed, socially and biologically, for our survival — and that in the future, this, not the other, will ultimately be seen as a truer product of our modern age. The slick glittering sheets will seem, in retrospect, from some future age, a strange historical aberration caused by ad-men of the 20th century, not by a profound respect for our biology.

And I have tried, as strongly as possible, to show that the good essence of these examples comes more from the process than from an imagined design. In a few cases there is conscious design, as well. But in all these cases, it is the process which dominates, and the process which gives the thing its life.

#book/The Nature of Order/2 The process of creating life/5 Examples of living process in the modern era#