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The subject of this paper is adaptation. I shall frame my discussion in terms of three topics which have nagged anthropology since its beginning. These topics are: 1. the role of biogenetic factors in cultural behavior; 2. the relation between behavioral systems and the external or natural environment; 3. the relation between mind, behavior, and ecological adaptation. I hope to show that these three topics reduce to a single theme when they are considered in terms of the central problem, adaptation. In addition, I hope to show that two of the major lines of development within anthropology, ecology and structuralism, can be reconciled and combined in a unified approach to human adaptation.

Criticism concerning some "loose speculations" about cybernetics, computers, & systems is presented, especially concerning their role in organization & planning. There is a widespread tendency to believe that human & organizational vagaries can be eliminated by some combination of the former techniques. It is equally ill advised to treat behavioral laws as extra-rational properties. It evades an important issue: they fulfill individual & organizational needs by reconciling conflicts, dealing with uncertainty, & providing adaptations to restricted capacities in collecting & processing information. An example of such an adaptation to "natural law" is suggested in the reversal of the original strategies for computer application--from attempts at large, comprehensive models to concentration on man-machine interaction. If less attention had been devoted to comprehensive models & more to selective adaptations this might have come about sooner. Criticisms about the application of management information systems appear directed at this neglect of behavioral laws. Definition of these laws permits analysis, redefinition, & refinement. This is an essential foundation for inventing & applying methods & technologies, not as superimposed abstractions but as integrated & adapted techniques. Modified HA.

In an institution characterised by hierarchy and organisational rigidity, how do military personnel accelerate adaptation to increase their chances of survival and mission success? (Survival / SWP)

Abstract
I review the thematically-linked articles presented in the current issue, from the perspective of a naïve outsider with dual citizenship in the disciplines of fiction and biology. The parallels Nic Clear ('Refreshingly Unconcerned With The Vulgar Exigencies of Veracity and Value Judgement: The Utopian Visions of Iain M Banks' The Culture and Constant's New Babylon') draws between the scenarios of Iain Banks' 'Culture' and Nieuwenhuys's 'New Babylon' may highlight cognitive estrangement as a prerequisite (or perhaps, an inevitable side-effect) of Utopia. Nandita Mellamphy compares the biological ecology central to Frank Herbert's Dune books with Laruelle's 'generic ecology' in 'Terra-&-Terror Ecology: Secrets from the Arrakeen Underground'; while I have misgivings about the misappropriation of biological terminology, I do not dispute the central assertion that the only path to success in an ecological context may be through surrender. Felix Robbins' evolving architectural constructs ('Unstable grounds: investigating ulterior spaces for practicing') strongly echo – perhaps inadvertently – the 'biomorphs' created by Richard Dawkins to illustrate evolutionary principles. Ben Woodward's 'The new curses of tomb space' – a rumination on subterranean aspects of both scientific exploration and the environmental consequences of nuclear technology along deep timescales – is, of all the papers presented, perhaps the most literally tied to the issue's theme of 'Chthonic Deluge'. However, all four works may be more tightly bound by evolutionary metaphors than by subterranean ones.