The Organization of Matter and Life 343 



are sufficiently complex that they defy complete analysis by pres- 

 ent methods. 



In this fluctuating matrix of change there is one facet of sta- 

 bility. The processes themselves operate on fixed principles, such 

 as the laws of natural selection. The specific products of the evo- 

 lutionary processes are highly opportunistic and subject to the 

 laws of chance. So many factors, for example, are involved in the 

 persistence of species that it is impossible now to predict which 

 species will become extinct in the future. It is likewise impos- 

 sible to predict what new species will form or what new ecological 

 relationships will evolve. In this way evolution does not lead to 

 rigid determinism. 



Observations and information which are available, however, do 

 indicate that first chemical compounds, then life, then species, 

 then the intricate webs of biotic communities evolved in an in- 

 evitable yet opportunistic manner. Starting from simple mixtures 

 of matter, this entire progression of evolutionary processes ad- 

 vanced by a finite series of steps. In this sequence each process 

 followed inexorably from the circumstances preceding it and in 

 turn produced conditions which made the next process inevitable. 



