Paths Least Resistance Quotes

“Information in evolution is usually associated with processes of adaptive change, because that is how we recognize that variation is possible ex ante but restricted ex post. The information in a unique and universal metabolism would be of a different kind, because it would preclude variation in the processes that permit structure to form at all. We will argue that this is the information carried in paths of least resistance. It is essential to the organization of the biosphere because only along these paths are the residual problems of robustness in a hierarchical system simple enough to have evolutionary solutions.”
― Eric Smith, The Origin and Nature of Life on Earth: The Emergence of the Fourth Geosphere