/ˌmeh-tə-BOL-uh-sis/
A dynamic, reciprocal exchange of energy and matter through which an entity and its environment mutually transform and co-evolve via sustained dialogue.
A dance of becoming, where giving and receiving are inseparable acts of creation.
“We are the universe in metabolisis - stardust learning to breathe itself anew.”
A systemic network of biochemical interactions through which organisms and their ecosystems adaptively reshape one another. Distinct from passive metabolism, metabolisis emphasizes a bidirectional flow of resources and information, where cellular processes (e.g., photosynthesis, symbiosis) simultaneously alter the organism’s internal state and the external conditions sustaining it in real time.
(Example: Mycorrhizal fungi thread through forest roots, trading nitrogen for sugar - a silent pact in which trees and fungi rewrite each other’s survival, molecule by molecule.)
The ontological imperative of becoming-through-exchange: existence as a participatory dialogue between self and world. Rejects static being in favor of fluid co-creation - identity emerges not from isolation, but through friction and fusion at boundaries (e.g., breath as air becoming self; self becoming soil).
(Example: A conversation where words are not merely traded but metabolized - each sentence altering speaker, listener, and the relational space between. In time, all three may become unrecognizable to their original selves.)
From Greek meta- (μετα-, “change, beyond”) + ballein (βάλλειν, “to throw, cast”) + -ōsis (-ωσις, “process”).
To clarify usage and conceptual boundaries: