MULTICELLULAR ORGANISMS 



Considering the formation of multicellular organ- 

 isms from an extropy point of view, it is apparent that 

 the extropy of the integrated organism is greater than 

 the extropy of a similar number of individually exist- 

 ing, non-integrated cells. The multicellular organism 

 contains all the orderliness of the individual cell and 

 in addition to that the highly orderly pattern of its 

 own organization. During the life of the individual 

 organism this high extropy level is preserved. By 

 reproduction of the organism to continue the species, 

 this level is preserved from one generation to the next. 



The survival problem of the organism is one of the 

 entire organism, not the survival of individual cells. 

 Similarly in the cell itself, emphasis is on the preserva- 

 tion of the cell rather than preservation of the individ- 

 ual protein molecules that are the building blocks of 

 the cell. 



As multicellular organisms gradually developed 

 from the most primitive to the more complex, the 

 quality of the integration of the constituent cells im- 

 proved greatly. This means that their ability to operate 

 together and contribute their functions to the overall 

 effectiveness of the entire organism became much 

 greater. Some of the cells apparently became specialized 

 for the specific function of aiding this very integration 

 process. For example some cells developed into nerve 

 material to serve for the transmission of stimuli from 

 one portion of the organism to the next. Others grew 

 to function as producers of special chemicals which 



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