Purposive Drift

Pattern Integrity

"The inventor Buckminster Fuller was fond of holding up his hand and asking people. 'What is this?' Invariably, they would respond, 'It's a hand'. He would then point out that the cells that made up that hand were continually dying and regenerating themselves. What seems tangible is continually changing: in fact, a hand is completely re-created within a year or so. So when we see a hand - or an entire body or any living system - as a static "thing", we are mistaken. 'What you see is not a hand', said Fuller. 'It is a "pattern integrity", the universe's capability to create hands'"

(From Peter Senge et al, "Presence" pp6)