Virtual & Animal

(...)

We could say that an animal perceives not the properties of its material environment, but the potential for action that those properties supply it with: a piece of ground is perceived not as horizontal, flat, and rigid, but as affording the opportunity to walk. Conceptually, the distinction that we need here is that between the properties of an object and its capacities: a knife may possess the property of being sharp and this may give it the capacity to cut, but the latter can only be exercised with respect to another object that has the capacity of being cut. In other words, unlike properties that an object either has or does not have, capacities are relational: a capacity to affect always goes with a capacity to be affected.


MANUEL DELANDA: Opportunities and Risks
http://lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com/2009/01/30/manuel-delanda-opportunities-and-risks/