Tomorrow's complexity can only emerge from today's existing assembly pathways
Basic elements forged in stars provide the foundation for all chemistry
Chemical bonds create new properties, enabling organic chemistry
Self-replicating systems emerge from existing molecular machinery
Neural complexity builds on cellular information processing
Human tools extend biological capabilities using accumulated knowledge
Unknown complexities will emerge from today's assembly foundations
Each stage constrains and enables the next. You can't skip steps in assembly.
Future structures must be buildable from present components. You can't assemble what doesn't have precursors. This is why perpetual motion machines remain impossible.
Complex futures require simple presents. DNA needed amino acids. Computers needed transistors. AI needs computation. Each level provides materials for the next.
Assembly takes time. The future can't arrive faster than assembly processes allow. Evolution took billions of years because each step had to be built and tested.
History matters. The specific sequence of past assemblies determines which futures are accessible. Different histories lead to different possible tomorrows.
Present assemblies modify the landscape of future possibilities. Each innovation opens new pathways while closing others. Technology changes what technology can be.
While constrained by the past, the future holds genuine novelty. New combinations of existing elements create properties that couldn't be predicted from components alone.
Assembly Theory reveals that the future isn't just influenced by the past—it's literally constructed from it. Every complex structure that will ever exist must be assembled from components that exist today, which were assembled from components that existed yesterday.
This principle explains:
The future is not predetermined, but it is preconstrained. Tomorrow's miracles must be assembled from today's materials using processes discovered yesterday.
Click any past assembly to see how it constrains and enables the future