up:: [[The Adjacent Possible]] > [!cite] Adjacent Possible by Lennart Björneborn > Björneborn, L. (2020). Adjacent Possible. In: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98390-5_100-1 The concept of [[The Adjacent Possible]] was first introduced by [[@Stuart Kauffman]] in his [[1996]] work "Investigations: The nature of autonomous agents and the worlds they mutually create (an SFI working paper (96-08-072), published by the Santa Fe Institute). It's a concept that explains [[Evolution]] in terms of exploration and actualisation of what is adjacent and possible; what is available at hand. > [!NOTE] The Adjacent Possible Def. > The set of possibilities available to individuals, communities, institutions, organisms, productive processes, etc., at a given point in time during their evolution (Loreto 2015, p. 9) > > The set of things--could be molecules, organisms, technological products, ideas etc.--that are one step away from what exists and that could be reached by the incremental recombination of the existing elements (Gravino et al. 2019, p. 2) > [!important] > The adjacent possible emerges, and is dynamically reconfigured when explored. When possibilities are explored, new possibilities emerge. However, not all things are adjacent and possible at all times. There are limits to what is adjacent. It depend on the [[Affordances|affordances]] of the specific context. New possibilities come with "an entourage of surrounding possibilities, a cloud of other potential new ideas or experiences that are thematically adjacent to it and hence can be triggered by it" (Tria et al. 2014, p. 1). According to [[@Stuart Kauffman]] ([[2017]]) "diversity begets more diversity". Another way to think about this is that, as living systems develop, they become increasingly complex. There are four essential aspects to adjacent possibles: 1. Topologies of adjacent possibles 2. Types of adjacent possibles 3. Serendipity as actualisation of adjacent possibles 4. Design for adjacent possibles It's not possible to prestate (predict) the evolution of all adjacent possibilities. Evolution "flows into a typically unprestatable succession of adjacent possibles". You can't know what will happen or what could happen. They're unknown unknowns. This means that, the present is "never a clean slate where we are free to make any decision"; history matters ([[Path Dependence]], [[Structural Coupling]]). The present is contingent on how you got to this point. Another way to think about this is that the set of decisions you currently face are limited by the decisions you've made in the past--even though past circumstances may no longer be relevant. The adjacent possible sets limits on the accessible space (Testa 2009, p. 995). Adjacent possibles can be viewed as [[Affordances]]. [[@Stuart Kauffman]] ([[2014]]) points to "enablement" as an evolutionary driving force. He outlines and explanatory framework of how "actuals" emerge in evolution and constitute new "boundary conditions that are enabling constraints" (p. 3)(Perhaps, something similar to [[@Alicia Juarrero]]'s [[Context-sensitive Constraints]] ). A primary sources of research into the adjacent possible is the Kreyon Project based out of the Institute of Complex Systems at the Sapienza University of Rome. > [!quote] > We live and move in cognitive, social, physical, and digital landscapes full of adjacent possible serendipity. This means that every moment on our paths in life, we're surrounded by adjacent possible opportunities for serendipity. Opportunities we may discover or overlook. Innovation and creativity are closely related to the adjacent possible. Loreto (2015) talks about "specific pathways through which creativity can emerge: e.g., recombination, [[Exaptation]], tinkering, serendipity, and trial and error" (p. 2). > [!NOTE] Exaptation > Exaptation is a concept from evolutionary biology about the reconfiguring and repurposing what is already available (Andriani 2017). An example of exaptation is feathers, originally evolved on dinosaurs for warmth and/or sexual display, then exapted by birds for flight. Adjacent possibilities are actual possibilities. They are what's actually possible for a given entity in a given context, at a specific point in time. ###### Further Reading - Andriani, P. (2017). Exaptation, serendipity and aging. Mechanisms of Ageing and Development, 163,30–35. - Gravino, P., et al. (2019). Towards novelty-driven recom- mender systems. Comptes Rendus Physique, 20(4), 371–379. - Johnson, S. (2010). Where good ideas come from: The natural history of innovation. London: Allen Lane. - Kauffman, S. A. (2014). Prolegomenon to patterns in evolution. Biosystems, 123,3–8. - Kauffman, S. A. (2017). Beyond physics: The emergence and evolution of life. Keynote speech. Kreyon conference 2017, Rome, Italy. - Kauffman, S. A. (2019). A world beyond physics: The emergence and evolution of life. New York: Oxford University Press. - Loreto, V. (2015). Unfolding the dynamics of creativity, novelties and innovation. White paper of the Kreyon project. http://www.kreyon.net/en/kreyon/white-paper-of-the-kreyon-project - Loreto, V., et al. (2016). Dynamics on expanding spaces: Modeling the emergence of novelties. In M. Degli Esposti et al. (Eds.), Creativity and universality in language (pp. 59–83). Cham: Springer. - Testa, B. (2009). Dispersal (entropy) and recognition (information) as foundations of emergence and dissolvence. Entropy, 11(4), 993–1000. - Tria, F., et al. (2014). The dynamics of correlated novelties. Nature Scientific Reports, 4, 5890. ###### Related