By “independently” I do not mean no interdependence. I mean not completely interdependent. You can’t predict one perfectly just by looking at the others.
Perfect prediction seems like a rather demanding criterion. I can’t predict the behaviour of one of my cells perfectly—but that has more to do with difficulty in establishing initial conditions, a lack of knowledge of the laws of physics and computational intractability than it does with a lack of shared heritable material.
Also: some value drift within a single large organism may be seen as being permissible. The galactic federation may tolerate a few rebels—the point is more that it exhibits large scale unity and is not threatened by the rebels—because they are too few or too weak.
Serious disharmony would have to be something larger—disagreement about which side of the galaxy will launch an intergalactic colonisation mission, for instance.
By “independently” I do not mean no interdependence. I mean not completely interdependent. You can’t predict one perfectly just by looking at the others.
Perfect prediction seems like a rather demanding criterion. I can’t predict the behaviour of one of my cells perfectly—but that has more to do with difficulty in establishing initial conditions, a lack of knowledge of the laws of physics and computational intractability than it does with a lack of shared heritable material.
Also: some value drift within a single large organism may be seen as being permissible. The galactic federation may tolerate a few rebels—the point is more that it exhibits large scale unity and is not threatened by the rebels—because they are too few or too weak.
Serious disharmony would have to be something larger—disagreement about which side of the galaxy will launch an intergalactic colonisation mission, for instance.