title: Recursive evolution.
abstract: In evolutionary systems in which the units (individuals) are generated by a morphogenetic process, unbiased "mosaic type" mutability of the phenotype is not possible (Waddington's principle). The question is whether this unavoidable "channeling" can itself be made plastic through provision of alternative morphogeneses possessing differing "hot spots." If so, plasticity would not only be reestablished, but be established at a higher level. Plasticity itself would be plastic. The property of ultrasplasticity is evolutionarily necessary and stable, but perhaps not possible. Ultraplastic systems form a subclass of "temporal brains" as described in deductive biology. Many of their properties have yet to be discovered.
mesh_terms: D000220:Adaptation, Biological; D005075:Biological Evolution; D005796:Genes; D009024:Morphogenesis; D009154:Mutation; D010641:Phenotype; D012641:Selection, Genetic