Every energon is composed of nothing but effects. In the course of evolution the environmental conditions changed permanently. The energy sources changed, the sources of substances changed, new interfering environmental circumstances developed. The energons were only able to survive by also changing, i.e. by producing new effects. How is this achieved?

There are two possibilities: either the energon produces a new functional unit or the already existing functional units take on additional functions.

In every enterprise both processes are applied. The first would be when a new building is erected, a new machine is bought, a new staff member is hired, or a new department is founded. As in a work-dividing economy such units in most cases already exist, ready to be used, to be purchased, or to be leased, this form of acquiring new functional units is rather easy. All it requires is awareness of their existence and capital – i.e. adequate energy surpluses – in order to integrate these into the effect structure.

The second process occurs when the boss calls his staff and tells them, "Listen, I have a new task for you." Or when he says, "Listen, from now on your department is going to take on the following in addition…" In that case no new unit is added to the effect structure of the energon, but, instead, one that was already existing is induced to perform an additional function

In the professional entities and structures of states we see the same alternatives. An example of the first process: a new tool is purchased or a new ministry is founded. An example for the second one: with a tool already existing a new operational process is carried out, or an additional function is given to a consulate already in existence.

In plants and animals whose functional units in almost all cases grow out of a germ cell, things are a bit different. As long as evolution was tied to this production principle, it was not that easy to acquire new functional units. It was only through changes in the genetic blueprint that such structures could be created – and this road was often barred by the fact that all stages of development had to increase their competitiveness – or at least not to reduce it. Otherwise, such a development would immediately come to an end.

It was much easier to achieve new effects by changing an already existing unit.

This process is what I call functional expansion. The tasks (‘duties’) of a functional unit are augmented by another – its effective field is ‘expanded’. So far little attention has been paid to this process, which was of significant importance during the evolutionary process. The phenomena of sharing functions, of changing functions and of pooling functions were realised both in biology as well as in economy as regards their significance and thoroughly discussed. Functional expansion, however, which constitutes the starting point for these phenomena, was overlooked or not given the attention it deserves.

This process gives profound insight into the development of functionality in nature.
 
 

First of all there is the possibility of a functional unit instantly rendering, thanks to its composition, further useful ‘services’ free of charge to the energon. For instance, with insects their hard armour not only protects them against enemies, but also against the evaporation of body fluid. In the leaves of plants small openings and channels of the inter-cellular system not only serve to transport necessary gaseous substances to the cells, but it is also through these very same channels and openings that the gaseous waste products escape. Or: apart from developing interconnections in the cells many enzymes also render valuable services in the opposite process of catabolism.

The cnidocysts of the coral polyps give particularly clear evidence of such a double function (figure 10). We have reason to assume that these highly specialised functional units were developed primarily as tools for seeking prey. At the same time, however, they also were, from the very beginning and without any additional elements, extremely effective means of defence. For if, for example, a predatory enemy touches the trigger, it is also hit by the poisonous arrow. Nowadays we are accustomed to classify all ‘weapons’ as belonging to one and the same category, thus making such a double function appear to be natural. As regards the energon, however, we are talking about actions in two totally different effective fields.

In more highly developed animals most of the sensory and locomotive organs also possess this double function. On the one hand, they are functional units for acquisition, but on the other hand also of protection. The whale’s thick layer of fat, for example, not only serves to protect this ‘self-heating’ (warm-blooded) animal against loss of heat, but it also provides great buoyancy, and thus diminishes the costs of ‘defence against gravity’. The webbed feet of many aquatic birds are also of good use when they walk around in the soft mud of the shores. Their feathers are supportive means of flying, but are equally important as a protection against the cold. Regarding the spear of primitive man, we will probably never know whether it was originally developed as a hunting tool or as a tool for defence – in any case for both it proved equally successful. The inventors of the nuclear bomb assure us that their original idea was to develop a means of defence against tyrants: it is, however, not less effective as a means of attack for aggressors¹.

Thus, in evolution, new balance-enhancing effects could, so to speak, develop in the wake of others. In order to actually make these really useful, however, it was necessary to develop additional patterns of behaviour.

This is, for instance, illustrated by the legs of a toad. Controlled by certain behavioural patterns, they fulfil six different functions for this energon. First of all, the toad uses them to move on land. Secondly, for the purpose of catching prey or of escape, they enable it to jump. Thirdly, using another method of movement co-ordination – they also move its body across the water. Should the male toad come across another male (during the mating season), it uses its legs to repulse the rival. If, on the other hand, it comes across a female toad, its front legs embrace the female: consequently, she releases her eggs. At that point the male toad forms a kind of basket, and catches and inseminates them.

These six patterns of movement co-ordination were definitely not present all simultaneously, but were developed in the course of time. The functional unit, however, was already there. By means of the expansion of functions, the number of its energy-balance-enhancing effects increased.

Spiders use their threads not only for the purpose of catching prey, but also for lowering themselves, or use them as supports for sailing through the air, for insulating their winter shelters, wrapping up their egg clusters, wrapping up their prey; they also connect themselves to their web via the thread, so that its vibration tells warns them whenever some prey has got caught in the web. Each of these effects is rendered due to innate behavioural patterns through which the functional unit, the spinning thread, becomes available for a number of other applications.

Three applications of the woodpecker’s beak are rather instructive. In the first place, it enables the woodpecker to capture insect larva hidden in the bark. A second application consists in constructing a sort of cave by using this very beak as a hammer. Thus, an artificial protective organ is created. Thirdly, in the course of evolution the woodpecker’s pecking noise became a signal defining its territory. This way, rivals are deterred from getting too close. In that case the pecking is more regular and more rhythmic than during the building of the nest, which increases the functional value of the signal. In this case, too, the development of additional co-ordination patterns led to further functional effects.

One example for extreme functional expansion through the forming of additional behavioural patterns is provided by the human hand. Even apes have a series of instinctive hand movements (clasping branches of a tree, looking for lice, scratching, etc.), and in addition they also acquire a couple of others by learning. We human beings – due to our more sophisticated learning ability and intelligence – have a learning capacity which is almost without limit. A major part of human skills is linked to certain co-ordination patterns for our hand movements. Whether we cook, write, use tools, swim, play the piano, drive a car, or tie our shoelaces: for each organised movement of the hand we first have to develop adequate co-ordination, we have to ‘learn’ it. Only with this universal tool, the hand, which can be induced to perform ever new effects, could humankind conquer the world.

At the next stage of integration, in enterprises, human beings themselves represent a universal functional unit, no less universal. Thousands and hundreds of thousands of different ‘functions’ are exercised by human beings in business organisations. The patterns for ‘suitable’ behaviour relating to each position are either to be found in the incumbent himself or in another person giving him orders or perhaps in written regulations. The basic unit – just as in the case of the hand – is always the same: the human body. It can either be equipped directly or indirectly with any given number of behavioural rules – thus allowing this universal unit to take on innumerable different functions within the business organisations by functional expansion.
 
 

Mostly when additional functions are developed the mere formation of additional patterns does not suffice; the functional unit has to undergo structural changes. In the simplest case differences in dimensions would be enough.

This can be seen in castles and battleships. As regards houses, appropriately thick walls are sufficient to keep out the cold, thieves and noise, as well as to support the upper wall structure and the roof. As far as ships are concerned, the required thickness of the hull’s walls results from the size and the construction material. If, however, we want these functional units to be forearmed against the effect of projectiles, the dimensions have to be greater.

On land, the primary function of the roots of plants is the acquisition of water (and of the nutritive minerals contained therein). In those species that grow to a greater heights these functional units adopted – by way of functional expansion – the additional function of anchoring and support. Consequently, they are stronger.

The whale’s layer of blubber, too, was developed as a result of quantitative change. Most of the whale’s ancestors, vertebrate animals living on land, already stored fat under their skin. This function alone fulfils two purposes at one go: the required reserve substances at the same time have an insulating effect. In the water this fat layer was even enlarged – out of which a third function developed: a significant buoyancy of its body.

Even protozoa went through quantitative changes in order to achieve the necessary floating ability. In Radiolaria the supporting skeleton is extended into the free water. The surface area and hence the friction are thus increased. Just like in the fat layer – the additional function consists in a countereffect against gravity.

In most cases, however, what is necessary for the functional unit is structural changes. If, in Egypt, the flat roof of a house is supposed to collect rainwater, it has to be built higher at the edges and to be connected to the cistern via a tube. The roof, originally designed for protection, now becomes – as a way of functional expansion – an acquisitive organ as well. In many cars the water used for cooling the engine also has a second use which consists in heating the interior of the car. Also here additional devices are necessary – but what is most important, i.e. water that has been heated, is provided by an already existing functional unit.

In the dynostarter (of some cars) the dynamo also takes on the function of the starter. In almost all fields of human technology such functional expansions are quite common and are striven for whenever they make it possible to save money. In many passenger aircraft, for instance, the door of the lavatory is constructed in such a way that locking the bolt on the inside at the same time switches on the light. Here, too, the bolt takes on an additional function.

Plants and animals needed to develop such performance enhancement to a much larger extent by changing already existing units. The water ascending in trees also carries the ground minerals needed by the cells. The roots perform additional tasks: they excrete mineral-solving substances and increase the concentration of the dissolved substances by osmo-regulation. If roots excrete substances that prevent the growth of competing plants (allelopathy), or if they store reserve substances (as, for instance, in the sugar beet), these processes, too, can be considered as functional expansions requiring adequate structural changes.

a) In the potato plant the rhizomes, which are equipped with roots, originally were functional units for the acquisition of substances and in addition take on the function of accumulating reserve substances.

b) The gills (functional units for the acquisition of gas) of the tube worm became – as an additional function – acquisitive organs. They are larger and are spread out like a fan. Small organisms and organic particles trickling down in the water are thus caught like in a net and brought to the mouth.

c) When looking at a prostitute we see that the genitals (vagina, breasts, plus all other parts of the body which have a sexual effect: buttocks, legs, face, hair, etc.) as an additional function become acquisitive organs. (Those who consider this approach and the comparison of a prostitute with a tuber and a tube worm absurd are advised critically to examine the further examples of functional expansion in this chapter. Here as in many other respects the energon theory leads to views that differ significantly from those we are used to.
 

We already discussed the angler fish In this fish, one of its back fin rays is longer and equipped with a worm-shaped device which it moves across its mouth. To other fish this looks like some sort of prey – and so they are lured directly in front of the angler’s mouth. It would hardly have been possible to develop such a deceptive organ via gradual changes in the genetic blueprint. The development of this device would have been, however, through modification of an already existing unit – the fin ray. However, – and this fact must always be taken into account – a suitable behavioural pattern had to be developed as well: to move the "bait" back and forth across the mouth.

In the tube worms, which also live at the bottom of the sea, we see blossom-shaped formations on top of a towering stem (fig. 16). These are gills spread out like a fan which not only serve the purpose of acquiring oxygen and of excreting carbon dioxide (double function), but also – as a way of functional expansion – became tentacles. Nutrients that trickle down are caught in this feather-like ring and brought to the mouth by movements of the cilia. The ciliated epithelium did not have to be added separately: it is already there in most of the gills and facilitates a better gas exchange with the movements of the water. The ability to protrude the gills and quickly to withdraw them again is also already developed in worms which do not use their gills as catching organs. Thus, it is only necessary to develop a larger ring of gills as well as a specific position in order to turn a respiratory organ additionally into an organ for catching prey. All mussels also have this functional expansion. In these sluggish animals the respiratory organs could otherwise be much smaller. Their gills, however, became a fish-trap-like device, and an additional suction tube makes it possible for them to pump water into this device, even if they lie completely buried in mud. Along these lines, the respiratory organ of the tunicates– just as in the whale shark – became a device for catching plankton, thus fulfilling an additional function.

One of the most efficient organs of locomotion is the respiratory tract of the above mentioned octopus. As it was transformed into the shape of a nozzle, it is used as a "funnel", through the water is breathed in and is expelled abruptly: these animals move according to the reaction principle. The same applies to the scallops, which are the only ones that are able to move about swimming. They produce a reaction by suddenly closing their shells, and this way are able to perform "leaps" up to 1.5 metres high and up to 3 metres far. In Pecten maximus the weight of the contraction muscle amounts to 30 % of the total weight of the soft body. While in all other mussels this muscle only serves the purpose of closing the armour, it has in this case – in the course of a functional expansion –a much bigger dimension.

Also the original function of the vertebrates’ tongues, i.e. to move food around within their mouths and to support the act of swallowing, underwent manifold expansions. In animals which feed on ants and termites (the green and the grey-headed woodpecker, the anteater, the pangolin) it is many times longer than in other animals and it is made sticky via special glands: it became an organ for catching prey as it is able to penetrate small openings like a worm. Humming-birds have a tongue shaped like a long paint brush: it enables them to reach insects on the bottom of the calyx. The chameleon’s tongue turns into a rapidly protruding catching device. In ruminants it turned into an organ that grasps tufts of grass and presses them against the teeth of the lower jaw. Dogs and cats use it as an organ with which they clean their body and take in water. In human beings, the tongue has become an instrument of speech.

In this explanation I cannot restrict myself to only giving a few examples because otherwise the reader might get the impression that curiosities and exceptions are being presented as an important evolutionary principle. As soon as we start out to study organisms and human acquisitive structures with regard to the principle of functional expansion, this process, so decisive for evolution, is encountered almost everywhere.

a) In the spider Cyclocosmia truncata, which lives in North America, the hind part of the body has the shape of drops and is being used to close up the hole it lives in. Here it takes on the additional function of a door.

b) The abnormally small size of the dwarf becomes a prerequisite for him being exhibited for money. Here, the source of energy can be found in the human desire to see something unknown and abnormal (the drive of curiosity); the body as a whole thus becomes an acquisitive organ as an additional function.

c) When a factory has a pleasant and impressive design this increases its representative power and reinforces the staff’s wish to work there. Here, the factory’s body as a whole gains an additional credit-enhancing and bond-reinforcing function.
 

If a waiter sticks his pencil behind his ear, his outer ear gains an additional, totally new function. Nowadays the African elephant has these extremely magnified auricles: the animal uses them as fans for cooling effects. The male Chilean bell frog transports the eggs deposited by the female via its mouth into its sound bladder where the young ones develop further; they only leave it when they have turned into fully developed frogs. An organ designed for producing sounds here becomes, through functional expansion, a functional unit for care of the brood. I already mentioned the Australian toad Chiroleptes which accumulates water reserves in its bladder: here, an organ of excretion becomes a container for water storage. In Byblos on the Libyan coast, 6000 year old – one of the oldest excavated settlements –, the dead were found buried in large earthen-ware pitchers. In these vessels, water or cereal was stored – as a second function, they became functional units for burial as they were broken in two length-wise. In the swordtail characin the gill covers are prolonged in such a way that they look like a cyclops: during mating the male protrudes this functional unit, the female believes it to be a cyclops and so jumps forward trying to catch it: copulation takes place. Here, the gill cover becomes a organ to support reproduction. In us human beings the genitals of prostitutes do not only have their natural function, but also become their acquisitive organ. In many birds the feathers assume the additional function of making them visible to and impress the potential mate because they are large and have splendid patterns. Equally, the clothes of human beings become – as a second function – a means of impressing others by fashionable design and ornaments. The spiders of the species Cycloscosmia close the access to their living holes by their extremely large behind which looks like a plug. In this example, an entire part of the body assumes the additional function of protecting the body (Ill. 17). In the Cuban toad Bufo empusa things are quite similar; it closes its home, a tube, by means of its flat hard-crusted skullcap. In the case of the inchworm, which might easily be mistaken for a dry twig, the entire external appearance assumes the additional function of camouflage. If a dwarf is put on show in a circus, his entire appearance becomes his acquisitive organ – the human curiosity drive creating the demand. The spaceship "Eagle" of the US Apollo 1 rocket, which landed on the moon, had a four-legged landing stand which at the same time served as a starting stand. In the female body, fat is deposited particularly in the buttocks: it becomes a secondary sexual characteristic to which men respond.
 
 

It is effects that are decisive for the energons, not structures. If a structure can assume additional effects, this is in most cases easier and cheaper than developing new ones.

Our blood vessel system shows to what crucial extent this process dominated and accelerated evolution. Its original function – this becomes obvious when we compare it to animals of a lower developmental stage still existing nowadays – was the transport of food to the individual cells. When the metazoans had reached a certain size, such an organ became absolutely necessary for the distribution of what it had acquired. In the beginning, (as up to this day is the case in trematodes) it consisted of channels that were widely ramified throughout the body. Next was the formation of a closed circuit where the body fluid is kept in motion by means of a pump (the heart). This circulating fluid (blood) now not only carried nutrients to the individual cells but also took up the waste products of metabolism that were accumulated there. In order to be able to excrete them additional functional units developed (nephridia, kidneys). The circulating fluid now took over the result of the predatory activity from the intestinal cells, carried it to the individual body tissues – and from there transported the waste products to organs which drew them from the blood and excreted them from the body. Another functional expansion that was added subsequently was the task of gas transport. The fact that the latter does not necessarily have to take place via the blood, is shown by the insects. Their body has a second widely branched system of tubes that carries oxygen to the tissues and then disperses the accumulating carbon dioxide (trachea). Vertebrates, on the other hand, can do without this: in their case, the bloodstream takes over this transport as well. Only for the taking in and excreting gases were additional functional units produced: under water it was the gills, on land the lungs. Apart from that fact, specific cells, the red blood cells (erythrocytes), specialised in taking up and carrying oxygen and carrying away carbon-dioxide. Thus, further important functions were taken on by circulation. Moreover, the bloodstream going through the body as a whole was a suitable "traffic route" for the "internal police": the white blood cells (leucocytes). This also applied to the antibodies. This, too, is a task taken on by the blood circulation as a form of functional expansion. Furthermore, it was a suitable means for the transmission of orders between the individual organs. For such transmissions, primarily the nerve system is in charge, but there are also chemical messenger substances. The hormones are secreted into the blood by the glands and evoke the desired reactions in other parts of the body. In warm-blooded creatures, finally, the inner central heating was added. These animals would have never been able to develop a separate system of tubes designed for this purpose – considering the extremely complex form they had reached by now – by changes in the genetic blueprint. This, however, was possible by functional expansion. Blood circulation already existed and was also ready to take on this additional function. Upon the penetration of pathogens, the inner heating is turned up even more in order to harm invaders - this is another function: fever. Gradually this functional unit, the blood vessel system, developed its competencies. Once formed, it could just as well serve additional purposes as well. It is true that this made auxiliary devices necessary – but the most expensive, most sophisticated part already existed.

We have a comparable process when looking at an enterprise – as is quite often the case in underdeveloped countries until today – that acquires generators or builds the necessary feed pipes in order to produce electric power. The two main functions required that justify this effort are the production of light and of power current for operating the machines. But as soon as the facility exists, the secretaries can also prepare coffee on a hotplate, loudspeakers can be installed for the pleasure of entertaining the staff with music, slides can be shown. Neither the hotplate, nor the loudspeaker, nor the slide shows would have been reason enough to provide the place with electricity. But as power was crucial for acquisitive purposes, it can now – as functional expansion – perform a series of other functions as well.

I already mentioned the most important functional expansion in evolution: in human beings the central nervous system – which was originally only responsible for the co-ordination of the individual functional units – furthermore took on the task of forming organs outside the body. To this functional expansion we owe just about everything we are; practically, it is to this that we owe being human.
 
 

Even up to this day many people are convinced that extraterrestrial powers made us as we are, and that the great variety of forms in animated nature is the result of what these powers intended it to be. In the formation of individual creatures and in human beings themselves they see the most obvious expression of divine wisdom and creative power.

Not only religious people believe this – deep in our hearts every one of us may believe it. Our brain, used to linking cause and effect, sees such extremely complex effects in the phenomena of life that it just cannot think of them without any concrete intentional cause behind them. The idea that a sequence of highly diverging – i.e. "coincidental" – processes may have caused all that just appears to be too absurd.

As already shown (part 1, chapter VII), it is, however, impossible that the functionality that is evident virtually everywhere is the direct work of extraterrestrial powers. The latter may have been the preconditions for the process as a whole – they may at the most have accelerated the coming into existence of individual structures, but how these had to be in order to be functional, they definitely could not determine. As long as the laws of nature remain the same on our planet (which is the case according to experience so far) it is environmental circumstances which control the evolutionary development of all living creatures.

The phenomenon of functional expansion provides further hints pointing in that direction – namely, the fact that a continuous influence by extraterrestrial powers did not take place².

If the organisms were the result of intentional powers of formation and if humankind really was given such utmost importance as a "final product" and "goal" of this development (a concept which not few adhere to), this purposefulness in evolution consequently – as one might be led to expect – would show its face in some way. However, it does not. It rather gives the impression of a strongly meandering process taking the most strange detours. It presents the picture of a perfectly casually developing process which – just as a gladiator in Ancient Rome – had to face and deal with dozens of opponents.

Almost all the main characteristics to which we owe our being human, happened to develop via the most weird detours.

Firstly: the ability to expand our genetically developed body, to carry our power potential to the boundless. We owe this ability to the fact that our functional unit which is the central nervous system at first added the development of behavioural patterns to its ever increasing competencies and then secondly the creation of and passing-on of development formulas for functional units. The functional unit which is the genetic blueprint would not have been able to do so.

Secondly: our hands, the prerequisite for our being able to make use of the possibilities provided by our intelligence. We owe these functional units, which are of such decisive importance to us, to the fact that we descend from energons which specialised in living in trees. This led to a thumb which worked opposed to the other fingers, and thus to the development of the prehensile hand. The function of this organ was – quite plainly – to make it possible for them to hold on to branches. If today we use the hand to write with a pencil, to play the piano, and to read the latest news on the Stock Exchange while stretching out in a comfortable chair, these actions all constitute functional expansions of an organ originally designed for climbing.

Thirdly: our ability of speech. Without it we would not either be what we are. The "bellows" which is necessary for that purpose was primarily developed for breathing, i.e. for the intake and output of gas. This unit – as another form of functional expansion – also took on the provision of the air flow absolutely necessary for human beings to be able to speak. Our genetic blueprint would hardly have been able to produce a separate bellows fulfilling this purpose. Further auxiliary services are rendered by the tongue, the lips, and the teeth. All of them have another basic function, all of them took over this new function only additionally. Our larynx was the only one to develop as a special auxiliary unit for acoustic signalling.

Fourthly: our cognitive thinking. That, too, came about via detours. For the purpose of verbal communication we had to summarise more concretely the diffuse variety of what we experience and to attach them to verbal symbols. The latter, however – this has been acknowledged for quite some time – constitute the basis for our thinking. In this case we can actually no longer speak of a functional expansion of speech, but rather of a waste product. For in this case a specific mental process became necessary for the function of speech: the verbal creation of terms. This again in our central nervous system led to an improved manipulation of our ideas.

A possible answer to this is: God’s ways are unfathomable. And to those who consider this argument as valid there is no refutation. But whether we judge our existence one way or the other – it will still not become any less mysterious. The mere fact that there is energy and that this stream can manifest itself in thousands of ways is just as divine as if the unfathomable origin of all living creatures had made the effort personally to form every single locust and every single putrefactive bacterium. This, however, has obviously not been the case. And this is all that is being claimed here. The actual origin of the entire evolutionary stream will for now remain inaccessible to us – maybe even forever. None of the manifold views or speculations on this topic is worse than any other. But how this stream of evolution "crystallised out" into individual forms was not decided by extraterrestrial powers. As long as the laws of energy and the influences of gravitation, climate etc. do not change in principle – and there is no indication for such a process –, development is traced out. Functionality is a consequence of interactions. They are the ones to determine the events of which we are part.
 
 

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Comments:

¹ Another double function: the shepherds of the Puszta wore their  coats made of sheepskin (turned) inside out during hot periods (as a protection against the rain), during cold times they are worn the other way round (for warming up).
² This interpretation is not supposed to be some sort of argumentation line pro or contra “God’s” existence. Views in this respect are a matter of faith: and thus neither provable nor not provable. This is supposed to exclusively deal with the question of whether a higher power influenced and controlled the evolutionary process directly – i.e. whether it interfered during evolution itself, during the past 3 billion years.