Before we proceed with this thread, we ought to clarify an important aspect of this discussion. The reference here to “living organism” is for the discussion of the ‘whole’ instead of ‘parts of a whole’. For instance, we would refer to an individual (a person) as “living organism” (the whole); we do acknowledge that ‘gazillions of cells’ (parts of whole) which make up the human body are also living organisms. The latter splits, multiplies and dies hundreds of thousands of times throughout a person’s existence. Some of the “parts of a whole” are at times engaged in self-destructive patterns; and even in that case, it’s not for no apparent reason. In Part 5, we will provide details and examples to explain further the self-destructive behavior of cells.

Unless otherwise mentioned, the use of the expression “living organism” here refers exclusively to the “whole” in our analysis. Now, let’s continue with the discussions from the previous paragraph.

Even if we were to accept for a moment the behavior is not permanent or intrinsic, it would be insufficient to explain the gap, however temporary, between what is considered the normal behavior of living organism and abnormal patterns of behaviors with no specific gains.