3 A lock-and-key process

There are hundreds of ways of doing it. Among them there are usually a small number which will increase the life of that configuration by most strongly intensifying the life of the existing centers. After studying the possibilities, we often find that there is one which is better than the rest because it does the most to preserve the structure of what exists and to enliven it. To the extent that is exists, our task is to find that one.

The relationship of the new volume to the existing structure is almost like the molecular lock-and-key relationship that exists between certain sites in a protein and incoming molecules; they have to fit very exactly, and the fit is very complex, so they are very specific. Whether they fit or not is very definite, though very subtle. What I am talking about has that kind of complexity. It is defined by highly complex features of the wholeness, that is to say, of the system of centers which exists in three dimensions.

#book/The Nature of Order/3 A Vision of a Living World/5 The positive pattern of space and volume in three dimensions on the land#