How do non-living things ‘evolve’? | Michael Wong | TEDxNewEngland

Quick Overview

Non-living things, such as minerals, evolve through a process driven by selection for functional information, similar to biological evolution, where functional configurations that promote persistence or novelty are favored over those leading to decay or stasis, suggesting that complexity arises from these dual drivers of persistence and novelty across all systems in the universe.

Key Points: Minerals evolve through selection for functional information, similar to biological evolution, contrasting with the typical focus only on life's evolution. The two drivers for this non-living evolution are persistence (static existence) and novelty (dynamic change). The speaker, a planetary scientist and astrobiologist, organizes the universe's complexity—from galaxies to apple pies—around these two laws: the Second Law of Thermodynamics (entropy/decay) and a proposed 'Law of Increasing Functional Information' (novelty). Static persistence favors simple entities that maintain their form (like crystals), while dynamic persistence favors novel configurations that achieve specific functions (like life). The complexity of the biosphere (life) and the mineral kingdom both arise from these dual selective pressures over time. The speaker suggests that the functional information of any system, biological or not, can be measured by its capacity to resist entropy and promote novelty.

Context: Michael Wong, a planetary scientist and astrobiologist, discusses his perspective on evolution extending beyond biology to encompass the entire universe, including inanimate matter. He uses the analogy of making an apple pie—which requires specific ingredients and processes to exist—to frame his argument that complexity, whether in life or minerals, is governed by underlying laws that balance the tendency toward disorder (entropy) with the drive toward functional novelty and persistence.

Detailed Analysis

Michael Wong argues that evolution and complexity are not exclusive to the biological realm but apply universally, driven by two primary laws: the Second Law of Thermodynamics (which dictates increasing entropy/decay) and a proposed 'Law of Increasing Functional Information' (which dictates novelty and function). He uses the analogy of making an apple pie—which requires specific ingredients and processes—to illustrate that complexity requires both persistence (like crystals) and novelty (like life). He notes that Darwin's theory of evolution, while successful, traditionally focuses only on life, ignoring the evolution observed in the mineral kingdom (e.g., diamonds formed under extreme pressure). Wong proposes that functional information—the information needed for a system to persist or achieve a function—is a universal metric. He cites two types of persistence: static (like crystals maintaining their form) and dynamic (like life adapting and creating novelty). The fundamental question for him is how the universe generates this complexity. He suggests that all evolving systems, including life, are built from many interacting components whose functional information increases over time, counteracting entropy. Therefore, understanding life's origins requires looking beyond biology to the mechanics of how simple components arrange themselves into complex, functional structures.