80 Informational environments
Although the focus of the Brandonean analysis quite naturally lies on the selective environment with respect to genetically variant populations, the ecological
environment and the homogeneity vs. heterogeneity therein with respect to various individuals will be of main concern here. The general upshot of the Brandonean distinction is that different sets or bundles of – objectively given – conditions
obtaining within the same spatio-temporal surroundings will matter in different
ways to different organisms, or even to the same organism at different times, and
that these conditions are measurable in principle. In the context of ecological considerations, this means that patterns of similarity and difference among a variety
of conditions, that is patterns of distributions of values across different ranges of,
partly interacting, variables will account for different types of ecological environments. We will encounter savannahs, rainforests and even urban environments in
a variety of different geographical regions. As such, these environments are not
characterised by spatial proximity but by the presence of certain values and certain degrees of variability, within variant ranges and with variant frequency, for a
number of variables. To these conditions belong temperature ranges, the presence
or absence of seasonal changes or patterns of precipitation vs. evaporation but
also the presence and behaviours of other organisms. The values of some variable
or combination of variables will have to remain within a certain range for some
organism in order for him to persist and reproduce. He will either have to pick
up information about those values and their transformations or he will have to be
reliably placed within an area where they are, and remain, suitable to him.
If it is the values and ranges of variability of some environmental variables
that define an ecological environment for an organism, these environments may
but need not coincide with a certain physical location or contiguous region. For
example if the values for a number of environmental variables show only minor
variation within the range of habitation of some organism, and if the organism
depends on relative constancy of those values, he may not ever be challenged to
react to any major changes, in rate and intensity, of the respective values. Nor will
it be important for him to collect information about changes or imminent changes
in those not-so-variable variables, as long as he remains confined to living in surroundings of low variability. In the tropics, much unlike most of North America or
the Central Asian steppes, temperature will be one such low-variability variable.
There will be some temperature-related information in the organism’s surroundings, but neither is there much of a reduction of possibilities at the source in play,
as the range of values to be assumed is limited to begin with, nor is the extension
of the domain of those signals actually small enough to matter. If the domain
of those signals, in spatio-temporal terms, is coextensive with or larger than the
organism’s range of habitation, and hence if the organism is unlikely to ever leave
that domain, he is equally unlikely to encounter conditions in which he would
have to keep track of that domain. He may be physically unable to climb nearby
mountains with lower and more variable temperatures (he might be a plant, after
all). Alternatively, he may be informationally bound to his tropical lowland by a
reliable proxy of the temperature gradient, such as the disappearance of his main
food source with increasing altitude and decreasing mean temperature.
Although the focus of the Brandonean analysis quite naturally lies on the selective environment with respect to genetically variant populations, the ecological
environment and the homogeneity vs. heterogeneity therein with respect to various individuals will be of main concern here. The general upshot of the Brandonean distinction is that different sets or bundles of – objectively given – conditions
obtaining within the same spatio-temporal surroundings will matter in different
ways to different organisms, or even to the same organism at different times, and
that these conditions are measurable in principle. In the context of ecological considerations, this means that patterns of similarity and difference among a variety
of conditions, that is patterns of distributions of values across different ranges of,
partly interacting, variables will account for different types of ecological environments. We will encounter savannahs, rainforests and even urban environments in
a variety of different geographical regions. As such, these environments are not
characterised by spatial proximity but by the presence of certain values and certain degrees of variability, within variant ranges and with variant frequency, for a
number of variables. To these conditions belong temperature ranges, the presence
or absence of seasonal changes or patterns of precipitation vs. evaporation but
also the presence and behaviours of other organisms. The values of some variable
or combination of variables will have to remain within a certain range for some
organism in order for him to persist and reproduce. He will either have to pick
up information about those values and their transformations or he will have to be
reliably placed within an area where they are, and remain, suitable to him.
If it is the values and ranges of variability of some environmental variables
that define an ecological environment for an organism, these environments may
but need not coincide with a certain physical location or contiguous region. For
example if the values for a number of environmental variables show only minor
variation within the range of habitation of some organism, and if the organism
depends on relative constancy of those values, he may not ever be challenged to
react to any major changes, in rate and intensity, of the respective values. Nor will
it be important for him to collect information about changes or imminent changes
in those not-so-variable variables, as long as he remains confined to living in surroundings of low variability. In the tropics, much unlike most of North America or
the Central Asian steppes, temperature will be one such low-variability variable.
There will be some temperature-related information in the organism’s surroundings, but neither is there much of a reduction of possibilities at the source in play,
as the range of values to be assumed is limited to begin with, nor is the extension
of the domain of those signals actually small enough to matter. If the domain
of those signals, in spatio-temporal terms, is coextensive with or larger than the
organism’s range of habitation, and hence if the organism is unlikely to ever leave
that domain, he is equally unlikely to encounter conditions in which he would
have to keep track of that domain. He may be physically unable to climb nearby
mountains with lower and more variable temperatures (he might be a plant, after
all). Alternatively, he may be informationally bound to his tropical lowland by a
reliable proxy of the temperature gradient, such as the disappearance of his main
food source with increasing altitude and decreasing mean temperature.