h-efficient networks) win out at the expense of their rivals (other networks) because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment. Future Trends, Forecasting, the Age of Adaptation and More Transformative Transforms 21.3 Famous Mostly Bearded Botanists and Their Role in Network Design - The Dynamics of Adaptation Darwin suggested that the process of evolution and adaptation occurs over millions of years. One way or another humans seem to have used those millions of years to achieve a competitive advantage over (most) other species. This competitive advantage is based on energy efficiency (output available for a given calorific intake), observational abilities (sight, sound, smell) and the ability to use observed information intelligently to avoid danger or to exploit locally available opportunities. To us, the process of long-term adaptation is unnoticeable due to the time scales involved. The process appears to us to be static. However, part of the process of successful adaptation over time is to become more adaptive, particularly in the way in which we conserve energy, the way in which we manage to have energy available to support short concentrated bursts of activity and the way in which we couple these processes to observed information. Short-term adaptation functions are noticeable. We can experience them and measure their extent and effect. We can recognise and observe the dynamic nature of the process. In network and device design, adaptation is an already important mechanism for achieving power and bandwidth efficiency and is becoming more important over time. As such, it is useful to study how adaptation works in an engineering context but using several million years of biological and botanical experience and several hundred years of biological and botanical study and analysis as a reference point. 21.4 Adaptation, Scaling and Context We can describe almost any process in an end-to-end delivery channel in terms of three interrelated functions - adaptation, scaling and context: i Adaptat