Time is often treated as the background against which biological events occur. In APS, however, temporality is understood as an organisational dimension of life itself. Living systems do not simply exist within time; they continually organise themselves through time.
Every act of regulation preserves continuity with previous organisational states while contributing to future viability. Development transforms organisation without losing identity. Learning incorporates previous experience into present behaviour. Evolution extends organised continuity across generations. In each case, biological organisation depends upon the continual coordination of past, present, and future rather than upon isolated moments.
This perspective shifts the explanatory role of time within biology. Time is not merely the sequence in which biological processes occur but one of the organisational conditions through which living systems maintain organised persistence.
APS Principle: Living systems do not merely occupy time. They continually organise viability through time.