p.1 In general, different perturbations will require different reactions or compensations. This means that the larger the variety of potential perturbations, the larger the variety of compensations the system must be capable to execute. This can be understood from Ashby's (1958) Law of Requisite Variety. We will hence assume that every adaptive system disposes of a repertoire or variety of possible actions, that potentially compensate perturbations.

p.2 Knowledge can be defined as the ability to choose adequate actions from the repertoire, where "adequate" means: securing the survival of the system within its environment. Knowledge selects actions from the variety of potential actions, in the same way that natural selection selects by destroying inadequately behaving systems. The difference is that knowledge does not destroy actual systems, it only eliminates "potentialities". Knowledge substitutes for the environment, making selections before the environment is able to destroy the system. Knowledge can thus be defined as a substitute or "vicarious" selector, which internally represents - and thus allows the anticipation of - the selective action of the environment (see Campbell, 1974)... What is represented is not the structure of the environment, but its selective function or action, i.e. the interactions between system and environment

p.2 Knowledge acts as a control on behavior... cognitive control is supposed to cope with a complex environment, and will in that way have to represent as much as possible features of that environment that are relevant to survival.

p.3 Movement + Irritability = control of position. Irritability requires simple reflexes (Turchin, 1977).

p.5 The fact that a controlled sequence of combinations can be generated and explored as to its consequences may be called rationality or the capacity for thinking.

p.5 The control mechanisms needed for choosing adequate combinations out of that diversity of potential combinations are obviously limited, and beyond a certain level of complexity they will become ineffective as guides for decision-making.

p.6 the first requirement for attaining a meta-rational level of consciousness is the awareness that conceptual systems are relative, that there is no one true representation of the world, but that there are an infinity of complementary representations which each have their proper advantages and disadvantages.