Self-Production: The Logic of Living Persistence
Life Builds Itself
Self-production is not something life does after it begins. It’s how life begins. It’s how it continues. It’s how it knows what to do next.
At its core, self-production (SP) is a system's ability to build, maintain, and reproduce itself from within. If it can’t create the conditions to keep itself going, it won’t. Plain and simple.
In the Biogenics model, SP sits beside self-organisation (SO) and self-correction (SC) as one of the three generative functions of life. Together, they form what we call Biotropy—life’s strange, recursive dance of resisting entropy by making more coherence.
The Mechanics of Making
Even the simplest bacterium knows how to self-produce. It metabolises fuel, synthesises parts, repairs damage, and divides. All from within. All without a manager.
DNA holds the blueprints.
Ribosomes and enzymes do the building.
Mitochondria (or equivalents) supply the energy.
Feedback loops ensure it doesn’t spiral into chaos.
This isn’t poetic metaphor. It’s cell biology. It’s also the foundational act of persistence.
Scaling Up the Logic
SP doesn’t stop with cells. It scales up:
Tissues regenerate.
Organs repair.
Bodies grow, reproduce, and age.
Communities nurture, educate, and remember.
Ecosystems recycle nutrients and maintain energy flow.
Cultures transmit knowledge, ritual, and value.
Each layer is more complex—but the logic is the same: sustain the system by producing what it needs to keep going.
Energy, Feedback, and Constraint
Self-production is costly. It burns fuel. It requires feedback. And it occurs within limits.
No living system can sustain unlimited growth. Overproduction—whether it’s cancer in cells or deforestation in ecosystems—leads to collapse. That’s why SP always incorporates feedback loops, coordination systems, and environmental limits. The brilliance lies in maintaining balance.
More Than Biology
Here’s where it gets interesting: SP isn’t limited to molecules. It moves into minds, societies, and symbols.
Raising a child? SP.
Writing a book? SP.
Building a resilient community? Still SP.
The substrate shifts—from proteins to narratives, from DNA to shared memory—but the function remains: generate and maintain coherence in the face of entropy.
Meaning as Metabolism
The desire to create, to be remembered, to feel useful—these aren’t philosophical extras. They’re the psychological extensions of SP.
To build something that outlasts us is not a metaphor. It’s biology, scaled into imagination.
When Self-Production Fails
SP isn’t guaranteed. It can fracture—biologically, psychologically, culturally.
Trauma disrupts memory and identity.
Collapse interrupts cultural transmission.
Systems lose the thread of self-making.
But even recovery is a form of self-production. Healing a wound, rebuilding a tradition, rediscovering purpose—all of it is the loop restarting.
A System in the Making
Biogenics doesn’t treat life as a fixed thing. It sees it as a system in motion—organising, producing, correcting. SP is the engine, the activity, the practice.
It’s not about traits or checklists. It’s about what keeps going, and how.
To live is to produce the conditions that let you keep living.