Universal Darwinism
A revolutionary discovery in science has been underway for more than forty years and goes by the name of Universal Darwinism, or the theory of universal selection. Pioneered by many reputable scientists the world around, this tenet holds that Darwinian natural selection, or ordinary survival of the fittest, is at work among phenomena well beyond the traditional bounds of biology. In fact, they are discovering not only that ‘survival of the fittest systems’ and ‘elimination of the weakest systems’ are operative among all of Nature’s many interactive ensembles but that these simple processes are enormously cumulative even outside of life.
Like living things, all material phenomena are known to interact, collide, compete, and sometimes even eliminate one another. Subatomic particles, for example, can be smashed in accelerators such as the LHC, or Large Hadron Collider. Atoms are smashed via nuclear fusion, releasing an enormous amount of energy in the process. Molecules too can interact and even destroy another, as can planets, moons, stars, and entire galaxies. In some 3.75 billion years, our Milky Way will collide with the Andromeda Galaxy, and it is still unclear if life and earth will endure this cataclysmic event. Survival of the fittest phenomena and elimination of the weakest have therefore remained operative at every level of our cosmos big and small. Moreover, it soon becomes clear that this powerful measure of competition among systems has shaped each and every ensemble to be as stable as an interactive universe will allow.
In further accord with Darwinian theory, the three most fundamental mechanisms responsible for life’s evolution are all present even in the evolution of non-biological phenomena. These are iteration, variation and selection:
- Iteration is operative, since all stable systems reiterate their cyclical activity one generation after another, much like species themselves. Although no other systems multiply their own populations via outright reproduction, they still perpetuate themselves via cyclical behavior at their cores. The Darwinian mechanism of reproduction can therefore be further generalized as iteration, allowing this principle to be applied to all of nature’s many systems.
- Variation is also present throughout our universe, as systems vary enormously in form and structure. Like species, all of nature’s many phenomena interact, collide, combine, recombine and more. Here too, this results in their own highly diversified evolution.
- Third, these variants undergo selection as well, since systems too are subject to survival of the fittest and elimination of the weak. Even Darwin understood that selection is nothing more than the simple act of preservation. In a letter to Charles Lyell in September of 1860, he expressed the desire to have used the term ‘natural preservation’ instead of natural selection. He stated, “Talking of ‘Natural Selection,’ if I had to commence de novo, I would have used ‘natural preservation.’”
Darwin understood that, although selection is a powerful evolutionary mechanism, it is also ordinary conservation at the same time. Even though it involves the highly selective processes of survival of the fittest and elimination of the weak, it is camouflaged by its appearance as ordinary preservation. Moreover, it should now be clear that all stable phenomena are of course preserved, however long or short that duration might be. For these reasons and more, it is now believed by many in Universal Darwinism that all stable phenomena undergo selection, i.e., preservation.
Complying with the stringents demands of the modern, neo-Darwinian movement, information retention is operative as well. In fact, it has been known for decades that genes aren’t the only phenomena that either contain or perpetuate information. As one of the most notable contributions from physicist John Wheeler (1998), he showed that “everything is information.” From subatomic particles to atoms, molecules, and beyond, all natural phenomena have different properties, which of course present themselves as additional data. Light, for instance, carries data not only about its own composition, but from the source it was emitted from, and from the things that reflect it, refract it and so on. Like stable biological phenomena, then, its inherent data too is typically preserved.
Scientists are therefore finding that all of the fundamental mechanisms at work in our own biological evolution are also at work in the evolution of our cosmos. From physics and quantum physics to geology, astronomy and the like, many such findings have even been confirmed by scientists the world around. Moreover, they are finding that each of these influential mechanisms is inescapably cumulative over time. These various devices thus explain how every feature of every phenomena is both created and honed via selection—just as they are in life itself.
The History of Universal Darwinism
The history of Universal Darwinism was, until recently, fragmentary at best. Individuals from Richard Dawkins to Donald Campbell contributed somewhat sporadically to the field as a whole. This changed in the 1990’s and 2000’s, however, with the work of Gary Cziko, Francis Heylighen, John Campbell and D. B. Kelley. They have together provided a much more accurate account of where this field stands today.
The general history of Universal Darwinism is as follows:
Richard Dawkins: In 1976, the famous, British ethologist Richard Dawkins stated in his important work The Selfish Gene that “Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest’ is really a special case of a more general law of survival of the stable. The universe is populated by stable things.” Dawkins thus claimed that natural selection “shows us a way in which simplicity could change into complexity, how unordered atoms could group themselves into ever more complex patterns until they ended up manufacturing people.” He therefore holds that, from atoms to humans, we are products of survival of the fittest operating at every level. Having explained gene selection in this same book, Dawkins is a well-known contributor to selectionism as a whole. He even coined the term “Universal Darwinism” in 1983 based on his belief that even life should be universal throughout our cosmos.
Wojciech Zurek: Also in the 1980’s, physicist Wojciech Zurek of the Los Alamos National Laboratory showed that survival of the fittest exists even among subatomic particles. Zurek has revealed its operation in quantum mechanics via his well-noted principle of einselection, or “environment-induced superselection.” In short, he has shown how classical physics emerges from quantum physics via a process that he calls “Quantum Darwinism.” Like species and their various adaptations, subatomic particles too are self-organized as a direct result of survival of the fittest behavioralisms and their corresponding information. Particles providing the true building blocks behind all of Nature’s various materials, Zurek has shown that Quantum Darwinism plays a critical role in the self-organization of everything that we perceive in classical physics.
Julius Rebek: Since the 1990’s, selection’s presence has also been confirmed among molecules through numerous experiments by Julius Rebek and his well-accepted process of “chemical selection.” Rebek showed, at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, that survival of the fittest is operative even in biochemistry. As pointed out by Dawkins, Rebek’s work has even proven that the stable molecular arrangements leading to life on Earth would have been naturally selected as well. Moreover, this is in perfect accord with the findings of Alexander Oparin in the 1920’s, the Miller-Urey experiment in the 50’s and much that has followed.
Donald T. Campbell: In the 1980’s and 90’s, for instance, the American social scientist Donald T. Campbell (1916-1996) developed his principle of BVSR, or blind variation and selective retention. Campbell recognized, like Karl Popper before him, that science itself is advanced bit by bit via survival of the fittest information and elimination of the weakest. Like the Socratic Method, it is forever refined via doubt itself, as that which remains must ultimately be true. He thus showed BVSR to apply universally throughout both biology and anthropology in particular.
Daniel Dennett: Cognitive scientist and philosopher Daniel Dennett is another known contributor to Universal Darwinism. He has claimed that, even in our modern era, selection continues to pervade science after science much like a “universal acid” that cannot be stopped.
Francis Heylighen: Belgian cyberneticist, Dr. Francis Heylighen, is another well-known advocate of universal selection theory. He has knowingly contributed to Universal Darwinism via his work in complex systems. Regarding all such systems in Nature, Heylighen states that “Normally, the fitter configuration will outcompete the less fit one, so that no resources are left for the latter (survival of the fittest). Such a generalization of the principle of selective retention may be called the principle of natural selection.” He thus defines selection in terms of BVSR to further quantify his findings in cybernetics, memetics and more.
Henry Plotkin: Psychologist Henry Plotkin is another well-known contributor. He too believes that selection can be applied more generally, extending it to physics and other sciences. In his book Evolutionary Worlds Without End, he also concludes that, via selection, life should be present on other habitable worlds. Like Dawkins, he holds that selection is universal, as life too should exist universally throughout our cosmos.
Gary Cziko: Gary Cziko coined the phrase “universal selection theory” in 1995. He defined this term in order to encompass all of the many different forms of selection arising in biology and anthropology. From natural selection and sexual selection to rational selection, more universal terminology was needed to encompass all of the many forms that continue to be uncovered.
Lee Smolin: Theoretical physicist Lee Smolin too has made many important predictions in Universal Darwinism. Specifically, his theory of cosmological natural selection holds not only that blackholes could give rise to other universes but that they could provide wormholes by which to travel there. While this theory may be difficult to prove, Smolin has provided extremely well-argued reasoning that large-scale systems too are regulatory feedback systems governed via selection. From stars to entire galaxies, he has shown that even these astronomical productions are governed via negative feedback—again, just like species themselves.
John Campbell: Author John Campbell made a number of other important contributions in his 2011 book Universal Darwinism: the path to knowledge. Based upon Zurek’s work in Quantum Darwinism, Campbell holds that everything from subatomic particles to man is a product of Darwinian processes. He quantifies his work via decoherence and Bayesian updating. His is therefore an information-based approach wherein data is accumulated in adaptive, internal models via evolutionary research and development among systems over time. This is consistent with the work of physicist John Wheeler who showed that information itself is the most fundamental constituent of everything known. Consequently, data is both accumulated and self-organized via the trial and error of every evolutionary step—just as it is in genetics.
D. B. Kelley: Author D. B. Kelley has provided what is perhaps the most complete account of where this growing field stands today. He has shown that this principle ultimately involves the survival of the fittest systems. At its core, natural selection involves not “the preservation of favored races in the struggle for life” as defined by Darwin but the preservation of favored systems in the struggle for existence.
In his 2013 book The Origin of Phenomena, Kelley shows such reductionism to explain the emergence of all of Nature’s many ensembles. From space-time and subatomic particles to large-scale systems themselves, he argues that each is a product of the preservation of stable systems. This work is quantified, in part, by showing that species aren’t the only things in nature that involve regulatory feedback. Just as our digestive systems tell us to eat when we’re hungry, there are many other switches at work in Nature, governing the production of natural phenomena. Kelley therefore argues that from small-scale systems to large-scale systems, everything is a product of negative feedback at many levels, even nonbiological phenomena.
Furthermore, species aren’t the only phenomena that involve entropy reduction, or reduced chaos, as greater stability can be instilled among all such phenomena. Because increased fitness arises at many a turn—even outside of life—the universe too has involved a progression from chaos to stability. Kelley thus predicts that, in accord with the ancient proverb ordo ab chao, we have order from chaos.
Conclusion
Universal Darwinism is a field that is utterly exploding in science. Scientists around the world are finding that it explains self-organization, or order itself, in almost every major inquiry. They’re discovering not only that selection demands stability but that stability demands order. Kelley thus claims that the information present in every ensemble correlates directly with the order of the ensemble. In other words, order too is a direct product of the innate stability imposed via selection itself.
Consequently, more and more scientists are finding that no line can be drawn with regard to where selection either begins or ends. Kelley claims that survival of the fittest systems cannot apply to some ensembles and not others. If it applies to some natural phenomena, “it must ultimately be applicable to all.” What is clear is that no line of demarcation has thus been inferred, showing where survival of the fittest does or doesn’t pertain among systems. In a universe that is utterly filled with contention at every level, selection presents itself as a simple principle of ordinary physics which therein applies indiscriminately. With respect to everything currently being discovered in science, universal selection appears universal indeed—and it is now being applied accordingly. This exploration thus brings to fruition many of the things now being realized in physics, quantum physics, thermodynamics, geology, astronomy, cosmology, complex systems, adaptive systems, and more.