Biological Openness and Linguistic Stabilization

Thomas Schüller (ORCID 0009-0003-9799-6747) · Syntagma Forschung · Wien · Fassung 1.1 · 28.10.2026 · CC BY 4.0 · Kennung in Klärung

Module for the Vienna Interpretation — chromosomes, development, movement

Preliminary Note: What Is Not Meant Here

As soon as sex, reproduction, and development come up, it is worth clearly separating three levels: biological diversity, evolutionary adaptation, and blanket judgments about the sexes. Only the first two are the subject here. As soon as the third level intrudes, such a text loses its precision, for evolution does not work morally and pursues no goal. It is not an acting agent that "organizes" anything; what prevails follows from differential reproductive success under given environmental conditions, without evaluation and without telos. The genuinely interesting point therefore lies not in an evaluation, but in the dynamics of biological organization itself.

Sex as a Form of Organization

It is precisely here that things become biologically interesting. In nature there exist very different forms of organizing sex and reproduction: XX/XY systems, ZW systems in birds, XO systems in some insects, hermaphroditism, parthenogenesis, sequential sex change in fish, environment-dependent (for example temperature-dependent) sex determination in some reptiles, polygenic systems, and social reproductive structures in insects. This list is not exhaustive. The diversity shows that, biologically, sex is not a single rigid, universal structure but an evolutionary form of organization within particular environmental and reproductive conditions. What prevails does not depend on a fixed blueprint but on whatever, under given conditions, carries adaptation, stability, and variability.

The Egg

The same pattern shows itself in the egg. The egg appears linguistically as a simple object, yet biologically it carries highly complex, open developmental dynamics within itself. Even chromosomes or genetic markers do not automatically define the complete later organism or its development. Between genetic structure, epigenetic regulation, environment, development, and actual expression there are ongoing interactions. The blueprint does not fix the outcome but opens up a space of possibility that becomes concrete only relationally, over the course of development.

And this is exactly what fits the underlying theme: language stabilizes categories early — "the egg," "male," "female" — while the actual biological reality is often far more dynamic, relational, and development-dependent. The strong point here is not a moral evaluation, but the observation that even seemingly clear biological categories arise and become stabilized within open, dynamic processes.

Clones, Plants, Fungi

Plants, clones, and fungal systems also show very clearly that genetic sameness does not automatically produce identical reality. Language often stabilizes simple categories such as "the same clone," "the same plant," or "the same organism," although the actual development always takes place within differing environmental and state dynamics.

A clone plant may well possess the same genetic starting structure as another plant, yet it never develops in a fully identical way. Light, water, soil, microorganisms, temperature, injuries, chemical states, competition, growth history, and epigenetic processes continuously alter the actual organization of the organism. Even minimal differences in environment and development produce different states.

This is especially clear in fungi. Many fungal bodies grow from the same mycelial network and share large parts of the same genetic basis. Nevertheless, each individual mushroom appears different — in form, size, growth, position, lifespan, and interaction with its surroundings. Genetic structure alone therefore does not fully determine the real state of the organism. Development arises relationally, within a continuous interaction between genetics, environment, energy, materiality, and temporal dynamics.

Here a basic observation of the Vienna Interpretation appears once more: reality does not organize itself as a rigid repetition of identical units, but as the continuous reorganization of open systems. Even seemingly "identical" systems develop differently, because no state ever remains fully identical to another.

Movement, Sport, Martial Arts

The same openness can be observed not only in the growing organism but also in the acting body. A movement — a throw, a strike, a step, a stance — appears linguistically as a fixed, nameable technique, as if it were a stored object retrieved and repeated. In fact, it is organized anew every time. No throw fully resembles the previous one, even with the same person, the same opponent, the same intention. Ground, fatigue, distance, timing, breath, and a thousand small deviations continuously shift the execution.

This is precisely why precision in sport and martial arts arises not by freezing a form, but through continuous adaptation. The error here is not a break in the system but part of its dynamics: it provides the difference against which the next execution recalibrates itself. To "master" a technique is to possess not a fixed pattern but a relational capacity to stabilize oneself again and again within changing conditions. Movement is thus itself an open system: stable enough to be recognizable and effective, and at the same time permanently reorganized.

With this, the circle to biological openness closes. What becomes visible in the egg, the clone, and the fungus at the level of growth and development repeats itself in the trained body at the level of skill and movement: genetic or learned starting structure fixes a space of possibility, but the actual expression arises relationally, over time, under conditions.

Linguistic Stabilization

Over all of this lies language, which produces stable terms — "the clone," "the plant," "the fungus," "the technique," "the egg" — although the actual reality consists of ongoing variation, adaptation, and relational development. Concepts stabilize orientation, and without this stabilization perception, communication, teaching, and science would not be possible. But the underlying processes remain dynamic, open, and never fully concluded. The concept is the temporary order; the process is what it orders.

Acknowledgment

At the end stands an image that gathers this whole movement into a single point. Mom means life — not as a phrase, but in the literal, biological sense. Everything described in this text as open developmental dynamics begins at exactly the place where, out of a seemingly simple object, the egg, an entire relational process emerges. The egg carries no finished answer within itself, but a space of possibility that becomes a concrete, living state only through environment, care, materiality, and time.

In that sense, the thanks are not an appendix to the theory but its quietest piece of evidence: life arises not as the rigid repetition of a blueprint, but as the ongoing, supported reorganization of an open system — and at the beginning of that openness stands someone who made it possible and held it.

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Overview · Being or Process · Biological Openness · Sources and verification · Deutsch