The variety of ways in which orthodox crystallography can be generalised is examined. Most extensions require non-equilibrium conditions and the con-cept of information-carrying structures emerges. In general quasi-equivalence replaces the exact equivalence of the International Tables and hierarchy ap-pears as an effective strategy of the "blind watchmaker" of evolution. We concentrate on the discussion of 2-dimensional structures. As methods of gen-eralised microscopy replace those of diffraction, so more general structures can be recognised.
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