British ethologist Richard Dawkins stated in 1976 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.[1] In the 43 years that have followed since, not at all ironically scientists have found that Darwinian natural selection, or ordinary survival of the fittest, is indeed at work well beyond the traditional confines of biology. From Wojciech Zurek’s process of einselection in quantum physics to Julius Rebek’s process of chemical selection and beyond, they’ve found that the same Darwinian mechanisms have given rise not only to species but to many nonliving phenomena as well.
Darwin put forth three fundamental evolutionary mechanisms: reproduction, variation and selection. In short, those offspring that are stable, even when varied, are naturally selected to survive. Starting with the American social scientist Donald T. Campbell in 2003, however, many of those exploring this field have believed that simply by reducing reproduction to iteration, these same fundamental mechanisms explain the evolution of all natural phenomena in general, not just those in biology.[2]
The goal of science being reductionism in general, biological reproduction is of course iterative, or cyclical, at its true foundations. The biggest fundamental difference between living and nonliving phenomena is that the former have the potential to multiply exponentially. Other than that one important fact, our systems are all perfectly cyclical, just like those of the particles, atoms and molecules of which we are ultimately comprised. Basically, everything is recurrent at its core, even reproduction. It has therefore been proposed that throughout nature all such iteration leads to variation, which leads to natural selection, or preservation itself.[3]
To then address variation, natural phenomena are, like species, enormously diverse. While the variation among subatomic particles is represented via the standard model of physics, among atoms it is represented by the chart of natural elements. Also, for planets we have four main types: terrestrial, gas, ice and dwarf planets. Moreover, for stars we have the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, and for galaxies we have three main forms: elliptical, spiral, and irregular. So it cannot be denied that natural phenomena do exist in an enormous variety of forms.
Finally, as touched upon, natural selection has also been found to exist well outside of biology. Because all natural phenomena interact, collide and even destroy one another, both survival of the fittest and elimination of the weak are operative throughout science as a whole. Also known as ‘preservation of the stable,’ such mechanisms are entirely prevalent throughout all of evolution.[4] Scientists are therefore pointing out that these evolutionary devices (iteration, variation and selection) are also entirely cumulative over time—just as they are in life itself.
Information retention too exists well beyond biology and genetics. In fact, Wojciech Zurek of the Los Alamos National Laboratory has defined his process of einselection, which explains how, in quantum physics, the most stable ‘pointer state’ is forever selected over many other potential quantum states. He therefore defined the manner in which our classical reality (or what we perceive) is ultimately translated from our quantum reality (or the abstract world of quanta). In his own words,
“Selection of preferred states occurs as a result of ‘selective advertising,’ a proliferation of the information about the stable pointer states throughout the Universe. This view of the emergence of the classical can be regarded as (a Darwinian) natural selection of the preferred states. Thus, (evolutionary) fitness of the state is defined both by its ability to survive intact in spite of the immersion in the environment (i.e., environment-induced superselection [or Einselection] is still important) but also by its propensity to create offspring—copies of the information describing the state of the system in the environment.”[5]
For these reasons and others, many physicists now believe that everything in nature is ultimately comprised of information.[6] It is also believed that such information can be both conserved and transformed—just as it can in genetics.[7]
Another fundamental mechanism thought only to apply in life is adaptive regulatory control. Among many other things, negative feedback tells us to eat when we’re hungry and to stop eating when we’re full. It also tells our furnaces to kick on when it’s cold and off when it’s warm. But those exploring adaptive systems in general are finding that regulatory feedback exists throughout all of nature and in many different forms. They’re finding that everything from subatomic particles [8] to entire galaxies [9] are governed via negative feedback in every regard.
Physicist Lee Smolin, for instance, has argued that star formation happens after stars burn out and the region grows cold. After a new one forms and ignites, however, star formation slows, as the region is then warm. Once the star dies, the process can begin again. Because this activity is then cyclical, Smolin argues that, much like a furnace, star formation too is governed via adaptive regulatory feedback.[10]
At the other end of this spectrum, biochemist Julius Rebek of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California has defined his process of chemical selection. He found that even organic molecules are governed via selection and therefore regulatory control. More specifically, Rebek found that organic molecules could be self-organized, via selection, into microcapsules. The hope is that these tiny capsules can one day be used to infiltrate medicines and more inside of living cells. [11]
To then address this field as a whole, Dawkins made another contribution in 1983 when he coined the term “Universal Darwinism.” This phraseology has since been applied to a variety of approaches which attempt to explain evolution, both biological and non-, via the same deterministic mechanisms discussed herein. The primary mechanism is thus referred to as universal selection, or universal selection theory, as it ultimately hypothesizes that Darwinian natural selection can be applied universally throughout our cosmos. It therefore becomes apparent that, with all of its accompanying mechanisms also being present both inside and outside of biology, selection too may have remained prevalent throughout. Like history, selection too may be continuous, as all of its various devices appear to have remained continuous as well.
References:
[1] Dawkins, Richard (1976), The Selfish Gene, Oxford University Press.
[2] Campbell, D. T., Bickhard, M. H. (2003), “Variations in variation and selection: The ubiquity of the variation-and-selective-retention ratchet in emergent organizational complexity.” In Foundations of Science, 8(3), 215–282.
[3] Kelley, D. B., (2013), The Origin of Phenomena via Universal Selection, Woodhollow Press.
[4] Kelley, D. B., (2013), The Origin of Phenomena via Universal Selection, Woodhollow Press.
[5] Zurek, Wojciech H. (2003), Quantum Darwinism and Invariance, p. 1, Theory Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory.
[6] Ford, Kenneth (2010), John Archibald Wheeler: Doer and Visionary
[7] Carroll, Sean (2016), The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself
[8] Kelley, D. B., (2013), The Origin of Phenomena via Universal Selection, Woodhollow Press.
[9] Smolin, Lee (1997), The Life of the Cosmos. Oxford University Press.
[10] Smolin, Lee (1997), The Life of the Cosmos. Oxford University Press.
[11] D.M. Rudkevich and J. Rebek, Jr. (1997) Chemical Selection and Self-Assembly in a Cyclization Reaction, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl., 36, 846-848.