Résumé
Devices and materials we daily use, have a definite function and can usually not modify it or extend it. We would dream about adaptable materials, performing several functions or possibly shifting from one to another, and sometimes called “stem materials” (Moretti et al. 2019). We have not yet produced such objects, and we still do not know how to proceed. We may certainly learn from living systems, often exhibiting multifunctionality and even creating new functions according to their environment changes (Holland 1975, Maynard Smith and Szathmáry 1995). How do they proceed? I hypothesize here that they use a kind of language (Gaucherel 2019) to decode information from their environment and ultimately produce an action.................