Adjacent Possible (Dawkins Framework)

Stuart Kauffman's adjacent possible, adopted and extended by Dawkins, describes the frontier of what is achievable given what has already been achieved. Evolution cannot leap to distant configurations — the eye cannot evolve in a single mutation from a light-sensitive patch. It must proceed step-by-step through intermediate forms, each functional, each selected, each opening access to the next set of possibilities. The adjacent possible is both an opportunity (each innovation opens new territories) and a constraint (distant possibilities remain inaccessible until the intermediate steps are taken). For technology, the principle explains simultaneous invention: when the adjacent possible is the same for multiple actors, they take the same step independently (Darwin and Wallace, Leibniz and Newton). For AI, the language interface was in the adjacent possible by 2024 — the components existed, the step was single, and the consequences were transformative.