Base units can be rearranged to elaborate upon their bearers.

STEM

Recombination of genes generates different organisms.

Literature

Reshuffling of graphemes (e.g., letters) generates different words.

Reordering of instructions generates different computer programs.

Rearrangement of music notes generates different melodies.

Exploring conjecture and the extraordinary, science fiction often asks what happens when building blocks are rearranged such that new, marvelous buildings emerge.

Analogous motifs in the storyline: examples where the central conceit is recombination; the extent to which a being is portrayed as human is determined by the arrangement of this being’s elemental units

Isaac Asimov’s ever-evolving positronic robots are distinguished from one another by recombinations of programming instructions.

Margaret Atwood’s Crakers are bioengineered as humans 2.0 with a resequencing of genes.

Jorge Luis Borges’ Library of Babel contains all possible combinations of orthographic symbols.

Octavia E. Butler’s human-Oankali hybrid species arises from a novel amalgamation of DNA.

Ted Chiang’s automata and homunculi are animated with nomenclature – reshufflings of letters that produce powerful names.

Analogous arrangements in narrative structure: elemental units of the text can be reconfigured, each resulting path generating a different story

Julio Cortázar’s Hopscotch

Scott Adams’ Adventureland

Trauvitch, Rhona. “From ancient Jewish texts to androids to AI, a just-right sequence of numbers or letters turns matter into meaning.” The Conversation, 13 Oct 2023.