Living systems are tonically inhibited, autonomous optimizers, and disinhibition coupled to variability generation is their major organizing principle: inhibitory command-control at levels of membrane, genome, metabolism, brain, and society.

It is proposed that the major organizing principle in living systems is disinhibition coupled to variability generation. Facile traverse of adaptive functional ranges is made possible by activities of inhibitory (attenuating and/or time-delaying) influences. These maintain barriers to physicochemical perturbations, so that interactions between the external environment and living systems produce transient local changes (signals) that are transduced by a variety of devices at hand to release activities within them. Coupling exists between the driving force (forcing function) and the generation of variability (information-processing capacity) among subunits of particular systems, i.e., there is expansible capacity for processing information in relation to demand. Metaphorically, metabolically generated energy is used to wind the biological springs. Hierarchical nesting of inhibitory command-control is discussed at levels of membrane, metabolism, genomic expression, brain function, and internalization of societal prohibitions (conscience).