Development Requirements

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Operational Requirements of Dependent Living Systems
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Once they have grown and developed, all living systems must perform a set of life functions to sustain their existence within an external environment. A representative list of these functions was shown on the Subsystems and Functions page. The ability to perform these life functions can be interpreted as a basic design and development requirements specification for all living systems.
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The three-level hierarchy's contractual relationships make the execution of life functions more complicated. They introduce radical changes in the way a dependent living system's life functions are carried out. These changes appear as additional dependency-related operating requirements, which must also be reflected in corresponding development requirements.
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Additional Requirements for Dependent Living Systems
•	Interact cooperatively with peer-level living systems.
•	Receive nourishment and energy from a higher-level living system's structure.
•	Develop a specialized structure to perform work for the higher-level living system.
•	Embed within an organization unit that determines the work to be done.
•	Perform specialized work as demanded by the higher-level living system.
•	Reproduce to provide additional workers needed by the higher-level living system.

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How Additional Requirements Are Met
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Within their life cycles, dependent living systems fulfill their additional requirements through three mechanisms: basic design, developmental specialization, and operational adaptation. In simpler living systems these mechanisms occur sequentially. In more complex living systems there may be overlap and looping back through the sequence.
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Basic Design creates a living system with a foundation of fixed structure and capabilities, plus propensities that can be externally imprinted or programmed for specialization and adaptation.
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Developmental Specialization reacts to current societal and life function work requirements, and tailors the developing living system to fulfill them.
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Operational Adaptation reacts to major changes in societal and/or work capability requirements, and further develops or redevelops the living system to participate in them.

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Basic Design
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In a cell, the basic design is provided by binary fission, where a mother cell replicates its DNA and divides into two identical daughter cells. This cell design is fixed, and does not change during a cell's lifecycle.
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In an organism, the basic design is provided when a male germ cell (spermatoza) joins with a female cell (oocyte) to produce a fertilized ovum. The ovum contains a new genome, which results from a synthesis of the male and female cells' genomes. This new organism design is also fixed, although current research may soon allow some degree of genetic redesign within a living system's lifespan.
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In a superorganism, the basic design is provided when a group of organisms integrate together to form a common meme pool. This meme pool embodies the basic design for a higher-level superorganism. As members specialize and the group grows large enough to become self-sufficient, the properties of the superorganism emerge. Meme-pool-based superorganism design is fluid, and is collectively dependent upon the group's membership and the maintenance of a common set of memes that control its membership.
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Developmental Specialization
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A common feature of dependent living systems is the requirement to develop specialized work capabilities in support of their higher-level living systems. A dependent component is guided to participate with others to collectively produce the life functions of their higher-level living system.
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For a dependent cell, this specialization is imprinted during initial development within its organism, and does not change during its life cycle.
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For a dependent organism, a more flexible specialization occurs at various stages of its development, allowing changes to occur as is ages and/or as its superorganism's life function needs evolve.
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Operational Adaptation
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For a dependent cell, once specialization has occurred it is fixed for the life of the cell (scientists are working to change this). Although the basic cell structure remains fixed, interconnections between cells may change over time. For example the learning that takes place within an organism's brain is made possible when new synapses are formed among existing neurons.
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For dependent organism, some structural adaptability is inherent in its design. As a superorganism adjusts to changing environmental conditions, its component organisms may be required to perform different kinds of work. Storm damage may force an ant colony to require many of its ants to shift from food gathering to nest repair. An external threat to a nation may require many citizens to shift from performing their daily work to defending their country.
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Less dramatic shifts in organism labor occur on a continuing basis as a superorganism works to maintain its internal homeostasis within a changing environment. All such changes must be reflected in the work being performed by its component organisms and their component cells.

Actual development to meet these dependency requirements does not always occur as a neat package within a living system's life cycle. Development Sequence shows how and where development occurs for different levels of living system.