A living individual is an object of this world that tends to conserve its own identity, independently from the fluctuations of the rest of the world [ENVIRONMENT]. And the environment does indeed change. ADAPTATION is the ability to understand the typical changes of the environment. INDEPENDENCE[or ADAPTATION] is the ability to withstand new changes. ADAPTATION referrs to the certainty of the environment, ADAPTABILITY to its uncertainty. They are not the same thing. We could even say that more of the former means less of the latter.
The uncertainty of the world is its greatest certainty. So if there is one question worth asking, it is this: HOW CAN ONE STAY ALIVE IN AN UNCERTAIN ENVIRONMENT? Perhaps the key to understanding biological evolution is not the concept of ADAPTATION but that of INDEPENDENCE. The idea is promising, because physics and mathematics, their laws and theorems, operate not in terms of adaptation but of independence.
There are three main families of alternatives, the first of which is…
1.PASSIVE INDEPENDENCE
The simplest and most banal way of being independent is to isolate oneself. This is when the boundary is impermeable to any change of matter, energy or information. It is the worst way of being independent, because in this case the stern second law of thermodynamics is irremediably applied and the system slips towards the only possible state, that of thermodynamic equilibrium, in other words, death. There are many ways of being alive, but only one of being dead. Nevertheless, life makes use of many good approximations to this alternative: latency, hibernation, resistant forms such as seeds, covering and simple growth [greater inertia]… The idea is to reduce activity or maintain simplicity, cross your fingers and wait for better times.
