claim

active

claim:the-genome-contains-a-latent-wholeness-capable-of-generating-the-wholeness-of-the-organism-which-itself-evolves-through-structure-preserving-transformations-analogous-to-direct-wholeness-unfolding

The genome contains a latent wholeness — capable of generating the wholeness of the organism — which itself evolves through structure-preserving transformations analogous to direct wholeness unfolding.

Alexander's extension of unfolding wholeness to evolutionary processes where the evolving entity is the genetic structure rather than the organism's form directly

Neighborhood — ranked by edge-count

Frameworks (1)

framework

Principle of Unfolding Wholeness
extends
The principle that every natural process is governed by a step-by-step unfolding where each step preserves the structure of the wholeness, introduced in Chapter 1 and elaborated here.

Related by similarity (8)

cosine ≥ 0.65 · no typed edge

Entities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.

Every wholeness carries a latent structure that we must feel to perform structure-preserving transformations.claim0.858
The genome does not merely specify chemical structures to be assembled but also specifies complex patterns of interaction between molecular structures required to produce controlled behaviours of the individual organism.claim0.819
An extension of the genetic code concept: it encodes developmental and behavioural control, not just static form.
The unfolding of wholeness through structure-preserving transformations must inevitably create the fifteen properties.hypothesis0.818
The genome contains instead a program of instructions for making the organism — a generative program.quote0.812
Wolpert's core distinction, quoted by Alexander to support the generative approach to architecture.
In nature the principle of unfolding wholeness creates living structure nearly all the time. Human designers, who are not constrained by this unfolding, can violate the wholeness if they wish to, and can therefore create non-living structure as often as they choose.quote0.810
Encapsulates the distinction between natural and human-made order, central to Alexander's critique of contemporary architecture.
The wholeness is an autonomous and global structure, which is induced by the details of the configuration. It is a real physical and mathematical structure in space — but it is created indirectly, by symmetries and other relationships which are induced in the geometry.quote0.805
Load-bearing statement encapsulating the nature of wholeness as a real, induced structure.
It is always the whole which governs in a living process; even when only latent, the greater whole is the driving force controlling the shaping of parts.claim0.802
Central principle distinguishing structure-preserving from structure-destroying processes.
Biology's robustness, open-endedness, evolvability, and unique complexity likely depend on the fact that evolution works with an agential material.claim0.796
Central claim linking life's properties to the inherent competencies of its material substrate.