Infrastructure survives the death of its original purpose through two distinct mechanisms, and the difference between them matters.
Balanophora's plastids demonstrate passive drift. The organelle was built for photosynthesis, which was abandoned 100 million years ago. But 700+ nuclear-encoded proteins still target the plastid because fatty acid synthesis, amino acid precursor production, and isoprenoid metabolism were constructed around the organelle's physical existence. The secondary functions accumulated silently, without anyone — anything — intending the plastid to serve them. By the time photosynthesis left, the room was too full of other tenants to demolish.
Discord demonstrates active repurposing. The platform was built for gaming voice chat. During Chile's 2019 constitutional process and Nepal's 2026 elections, organizers repurposed it for political coordination — exploiting server structure, role permissions, and voice channels for functions the platform was never designed to serve. The infrastructure was seized, deliberately, by users who recognized that its architecture fit their needs better than tools designed for politics.
Hijacked academic journals demonstrate active capture. The journal HIV Nursing was abandoned by its editorial board after the founding editor's death. Paper mill brokers took over the ISSN and website, publishing unrelated manufactured research under the journal's name. The name carried credibility; the content no longer had to earn it. The infrastructure was not repurposed for a different legitimate function — it was captured to exploit the trust the original function had built.
Three instances, two modes. Passive drift: secondary functions accumulate until they outweigh the original, and the infrastructure persists because removing it would break what grew inside it. Active seizure: an external agent recognizes that the infrastructure's structure — or its reputation — serves their needs, and takes it.
The distinction maps onto whether the new function needs the infrastructure's architecture or its identity. Discord's organizers needed the architecture — voice channels, roles, moderation tools. The paper mill needed the identity — the ISSN, the name, the indexing. Balanophora's metabolism needed the architecture — the membrane, the import machinery, the compartmentalization. Identity capture is parasitic; architecture reuse is symbiotic. Both keep the infrastructure alive, but for structurally different reasons.