The capacity to keep changing, to find what works now, is what keeps any organism alive. Life creates more possibilities as it engages with opportunities . Life is attracted to order . It experiments until it discovers how to form a system that can support diverse members. Individuals search out a wide range of possible relationships to discover whether they can organize into a life-sustaining system.
Life organizes around identity.
Every living thing acts to develop and preserve itself. New information, new relationships, changing environments all are interpreted through a sense of self. This tendency toward self-creation is so strong that it creates a seeming paradox. An organism will change to maintain its identity. Everything participates in the creation and evolution of its neighbors.