(1) The Creation Of Potential
Behavioural options are created at the timescales of phylogenesis, ontogenesis and logogenesis/behaviour. That is, the behavioural potential of any individual depends on what systems have thus far evolved in the culture of the community[1], what systems have evolved in the individual through experience[2], and what systems emerge anew through recombinations of pre-established options during behaviour.
(2) The Number Of Options
The range of behavioural potential depends on the degree of expansion of the systems involved: the degree to which they are elaborated, extended and enhanced. The elaboration of systems includes the number of options[3] per systems, and the degree of delicacy of such systems. The extension of systems includes the number of conjunctive (‘simultaneous’) systems, which create combinatorial potential: each system being a dimension, the degrees of freedom, of the conjoined network. The enhancement of systems includes the degree to which they are qualified by specific contextual circumstances; that is, the amount of register variation established in the system as a whole.[4]
Footnotes:
[1] All decisions result from historical processes, enabled by and enabling the decisions of others, the potential of each individual to decide enriched by the decision making of others.
[2] Boden (1995: 155):
The more a creature’s past experience differs from that of other creatures, the more ‘individual’ its behaviour will appear.
[3] Of course, options vary in value, and some contrasts may turn out to be only apparent, on closer inspection.
[4] Across species, there is a continuum of expanding behavioural potential, from fewer to greater choices.