Self-assembly in general

To know a pattern is to know its roots – to understand a pattern, we must understand its history. Configurational explanations are historical explanations of pattern topology. Formally, a configurational explanation is a topologically naive automaton – a logical adder – that combines a set of raw materials and a templet to produce a final pattern. When the raw materials are topologically naive, the templet must contain significant explicit form information and the final pattern is extensively templeted. In contrast, when the raw materials are themselves topologically knowledgeable and allow the assembly of only one or a very few different configurations, the templet need not provide much additional form information and the final pattern is self-assembling.

A key and a lock, a hand and a glove, and a three-pronged plug and an electrical socket are all self-assembling units – the underlying ‘universal assembly laws’ are restrictive, and they can be fitted together in only one way.