Adaptation in Iterated and Serial Systems

Abstract

The last three chapters have been concerned primarily with technique, with the logic of mechanism, when the mechanism shows partial, fluctuating and temporary divisions into subsystems within the whole; they have considered specially the case when the subsystems are rich in states of equilibrium. We can now take up again the thread left at S. 11/13, and can go on to consider the problem of how a large and complex organism can adapt to a large and complex environment without taking the almost infinite time suggested by S. 11/5.