The Origin and Evolution of Complex Enough Systems in Biology

Abstract

Recent criticisms of Neo-Darwinism are considered and disputed within the setting of recent advances in chemical physics. A related query, viz., the ontological thesis, that everything is physical, confronts a crucial test on the validity of reductionism as a fundamental approach to science. While traditional ‘physicalism’ interprets evolution as a sequence of physical accidents governed by the second law of thermodynamics, the concepts of biology concern processes that owe their goal-directedness to the influence of an evolved program. This disagreement is met by unifying basic aspects of chemistry and physics, formulating the Correlated Dissipative Ensemble, CDE, as a characterization of a ‘complex enough systems’, CES, in biology. The latter entreats dissipative dynamics; non-Hermitian quantum mechanics together with modern quantum statistics thereby establishing a precise spatio-temporal order of significance for living systems. The CDE grants a unitary transformation structure that comprises communication protocols of embedded Poisson statistics for molecular recognition and cellular differentiation, providing cell-hierarchies in the organism. The present conception of evolution, founded on communication with a built-in self-referential order, offers a valid argument in favour of Neo-Darwinism, providing an altogether solid response and answer to the criticisms voiced above.