“Individuation has resisted thought and description until now because we have recognized the existence of only one form of equilibrium: stable equilibrium. The idea of ‘metastable equilibrium’ had not been recognized. A being was implicitly presumed to be in a state of stable equilibrium at all times. Stable equilibrium excludes the idea of becoming because it corresponds to the lowest level of potential energy possible; it is the sort of equilibrium that is attained in a system when all the possible transformations have been achieved and no other force remains to enact any further changes. With all the potentials actualized, and the system having reached its lowest energy level, it can no longer go through any transformations. The ancients recognized only the states of instability and stability, movement and rest, but they had no clear and objective idea of metastability. In order to define metastability, it is necessary to introduce the notion of potential energy residing in a given system, the notion of order and that of an increase in entropy. In this way it is possible to define the being in its metastable state, which is very different from stable equilibrium and rest.”
-Gilbert Simondon
