reuse of an existing structure for a new function is another thing in common between biological and technological evolution. It is called exaptation
Also in organisational change, and social learning landscapes. The route to it is often narrative work in the #sc sense I intuit. Detecting the opportunities for it is macroscopic in essence I intuit. [[Macroscope 20090702120700]]
Exaptation refers to evolutionary develop-ments beyond those selected for their role by adaptation alone.24It is where a trait emergesfor one function that is coopted afterwards for another.
The term exaptation is a helpful and essential way of understanding what Rickert is after in this essay. The word comes from evolutionary biology.
It's easiest for me to understand etymologically. Adaptation shares the -apt root, that is, "being fitting." But whereas Ad-aptation is ad or "toward" being fit or useful, Ex-aptation is ex or "away" or "out of" being fit or useful.
Notice the huge difference: fit-ness doesn't happen because an organism or, here, a culture, tries to achieve some goal it has already recognized. Rather, the organism (or culture) stumbles toward fit-ness by repurposing [N.B. I need help here. "Recycling?", "Fortuitously finding use?"] traits (practices, rituals, etc.) which were formerly "apt" for something else.