Evolution is often described in terms of genes as repositories of information. Viewed through morphogenesis, however, evolutionary memory resides in the relational topology of the ecosystem-field, not solely in hereditary material. Lineages, developmental constraints, and ecological structures collectively stabilise patterns across generations.
1. Memory as relational persistence
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Traits recur because the field of potential enables coherent actualisations, not because they are pre-recorded instructions.
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Developmental pathways, epigenetic mechanisms, and niche construction stabilise recurrent patterns, serving as structural memory.
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Lineages are perspectival continuities: sequences of aligned actualisations that maintain coherence within the field.
2. Developmental constraints
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Constraints shape which perturbations can persist and which forms are possible.
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These are not rigid limits but topological boundaries of potential, guiding the field’s alignment.
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Constraints ensure stability while preserving space for innovation, allowing populations to adapt without losing systemic coherence.
3. Ecological and interspecies feedback
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Interactions among species, environmental pressures, and resource cycles reinforce recurring patterns.
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Ecosystem feedback acts as a semiotic memory, promoting stability and guiding evolutionary trajectories.
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Persistence and recurrence emerge from continuous, relational actualisation, not from discrete, stored instructions.
4. Recurrence and adaptation
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Recurrent traits and behaviours are expressions of the ecosystem’s morphogenetic topology, stabilised across generations.
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Adaptive evolution is a dialogue between perturbation and alignment, novelty and persistence, variability and coherence.
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Evolutionary trajectories are thus semiotic and relational, not purely mechanistic or deterministic.
5. Implications
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Evolutionary continuity is a property of the relational field, not just genes or individuals.
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Lineage, memory, and persistence emerge naturally from recursive alignment of potential, integrating developmental, ecological, and interspecies factors.
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Evolution is both stable and creative, a continuous actualisation of possibilities constrained and guided by the topology of life itself.
In the next post, “Toward a Relational Evolutionary Theory,” we will synthesise these insights, showing how populations, ecosystems, and novelty collectively enact morphogenesis, offering a unified, relational account of evolutionary dynamics.
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