Maintaining a healthy "or"

It has long been known that the ability to adapt, to seemingly assume more than one identity, or the maintenance of a healthy "or" is necessary for a healthy existence on various levels.  On a cellular level, we see this accomplished in numerous ways.
We saw in an earlier post how diversity can result from relative simplicity by simply changing the sequence of various pieces  (i.e ABC can be changed to ACB and the like).  The cell can seemingly change the order of certain genes when the situation calls for it.  For example, when a certain gene needs to be deactivated, a flippase gene can make an enzyme which inverts the order of genes.  The flippase gene can then seemingly be inserted between the gene that needs to be deactivated and that genes promoter.
Some types of adaptation do not involve a change in the order of genes but simply the temporary movement of sections of DNA.  For example, "repressors", which normally repress a gene which may encode the sequence for an enzyme which digests a certain type of molecule, can themselves seemingly jump away from the DNA when they (the repressors) need to be deactivated.   Thus, a repressor for a gene encoding the enzyme that digests lactose will, in the presence of lactose, seem to jump away from the DNA sequence and cling to the lactose molecule.  This allows the RNA polymerase to slip through, read the DNA, produce messenger RNA and thus begin the sequence of enzyme production (amino acids bind to transfer RNA, and ribosomes then assemble the enzymes out of the amino acids.)
The diversity of the "or"  is necessary for, and expresses itself in the production of antibodies.  According to Gonnick, certain cells have toolkits containing hundreds of pieces of DNA.  When a foreign invader, such as the cold I am getting over, rears its ugly head, the cell can assemble the pieces of DNA in millions of ways to make the appropriate antibody.  Thus, we have yet another example of the "or" taking advantage of the "and" to make millions of different things from a few hundred pieces.
Humans have recently begun to appropriate the "or" to splice together different genes, also known as recombinant DNA technology.  Of course, the human mind has always sought to appropriate the diversity of the "or" to make things that don't exist in nature.   Whether they can truly appropriate something that they don't own, and the effect of these efforts will require another post.