Unified Life Form Evolution Postulate

Abstract

Premise: We propose that qualitative properties transpire between matter and energy in the presence of the fundamental forces, such that energy is cumulated and transmuted in matter, resulting in the formation and propagation of material systems which increase their organizational complexity, environmental adaptation, divergence of form and reproductive capacity so as to enable this transmutation of energy with increasing efficiency and input-output capacity. This accounts for the origins and evolution of life on earth and potentially throughout the known universe. Abstract: We posit that the origin and evolution of life is necessitated by natural law. Energy throughput is maximized and entropy increases overall in nature (a.), which inevitably results in life forms that increase in complexity and intelligence over time. The origin of life is not a random occurrence in the universe. It is not an “accident of nature” as many suggest. On the contrary, the origin and evolution of life is mandated by the same natural laws that account for the evolutionary development of the universe itself. In order to satisfy the second law of thermodynamics to an even greater measure, highly ordered products of nature (“exceptions” to the second law…) become favored because their end products are living systems which accelerate the rate of occurrence of the second law overall. Examples include the endergonic (b.) coupled-pair reactions that convert energy to the useable chemical form in order to produce the molecules needed for the cell structure of organisms, which ultimately lead to highly ordered living systems such as animals and humans, who release entropic bi-products into the universe at a higher rate than non-living substances. The transition from “highly ordered” to “self-ordered” and further to “self-programming” is a continuation of the same process; driven by the second law (in the net-overall construct); but also driven by another concept; one that predicts that complex systems will behave in such a fashion as to facilitate an ever-increasing throughput of energy. Nature utilizes the “coupling” of these two processes; 1) Increased net-overall entropy AND 2) Increased net-overall energy throughput. This net-overall increase of entropy “couples” with the property of net-overall increase of energy-throughput, leading ultimately to the emergence of self-programming living systems, which in turn accelerate the two coupled processes even further.

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