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At the level of natural evolution, when observing phenomena which are neither purely ordered nor purely random, but characterized by a plot of sophisticated organization modules, we are normally observing an intermediate situation between a complete absence of constraints, on the one hand, and the highest degree of redundancy, on the other. In this sense, optimal organization should be considered an effective compromise (Schroedinger's aperiodic crystal) between the greatest possible variability and the highest possible specificity. Given the deep structure underlying the surface message, this compromise inevitably articulates itself in accordance with a dynamical dimension proper to a self-organizing process, i.e. a process on the basis of which changes in organizational modules are apparently brought about by a program which is not predetermined, but produced by the encounter between the realization of specific virtualities unfolding within the evolving system, and the action, partly determined by specific coagulum functions, of generative (and selective) information fluxes emerging at the level of the reality external to the system. In principle, this process may for a variety of factors cause a progressive reduction in the conditions of possible high redundancy proper to the initial phase, together with a successive sudden increase in symbolic potential variability. This will therefore allow a further extension of the internal regulatory factors' range of action, in conjunction with the appearance of new constraints and regenerated organizational forms, so that the increase in variability will be matched by increased specificity and reduced disorder, and with no paradox or contradiction involved. It is precisely this near-contextual increase in variability and specificity that we refer to in speaking of an internal "opening up" of a coupled system furnished with self-organizing modules. In other words, when at the level of life specific thresholds are crossed, the bases of variability are extended, while, simultaneously, the conditions favourable for extremely complex organizational phenomena begin to be realized.

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-6013-4_1

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