1 68 Information Storage and Neural Control 



acceptable. If now we change the verb akogether and posit, 

 "The organism adopts a strategy for . . .," we pass for many 

 readers rather too abruptly into the realm of purpose. Thus, it 

 might be more suitable to say instead, "The organism is pro- 

 grammed for a strategy of . . .." The important point to im- 

 press here is that all of these statements mean essentially the 

 same thing mechanistically, though epistemologically they are 

 poles apart. Consequently, they give rise to very different ways of 

 asking questions, therefore to divergent investigational approaches, 

 and finally to quite different classes of answers. 



To illustrate, if in the present instance the hrst-mentioned 

 point of view is adopted, then only the empirical sections of this 

 paper would have relevance, and its content might be summarized 

 by saying: The York River plankton community appears to be 

 eminently adapted to its environment as indicated by 1) stratifica- 

 tion of organisms near the surface where there is more light, 

 2) increase of chlorophyll efficiency with depth due to both 

 physiological and species compositional reasons, and 3) sharp 

 curtailment of respiration in the lower part of the water column 

 as the organisms die and sink, making possible a positive balance 

 between energy gains and losses in the community. This is a 

 descriptive approach, and it yields purely descriptive answers with 

 limited power to provide real insight into the marvel of organiza- 

 tion and behavior which is the community. 



Contrast this with the summary which might result from 

 acceptance of the last point of view: Based on the above-mentioned 

 observations, the York River community appears to be pro- 

 grammed for a strategy of maximizing its biomass, therefore its 

 energy content, therefore its ability to purchase utility and increase 

 its information reserves, therefore its diversity or richness of form, 

 and therefore its stability in a variable environment. In the 

 process, the community, inchoate a biological system as it is, 

 meets some fundamental thermodynamic and economic impera- 

 tives, as well as the dictum of Shannon's Theorem 10. 



The new level of abstraction so attained may or may not qualify 

 the community as a Wienerian (42) machina ratiocinatrix, but if 

 there is a distinction, it would seem to lie largely in the realm of 

 logic and semantics, not of biology. 



