Robert M. Hazen, PhD - The Missing Law: Is There a Universal Law of Evolving Systems?

Macroscopic physical laws, including Newton’s laws of motion and gravity, the laws of electromagnetism, and the laws of thermodynamics, codify the behavior of varied natural systems across space and time. These empirical statements collectively describe much of the non-relativistic natural world at scales greater than quantum phenomena. But are these laws of nature sufficient to characterize all of the familiar phenomena of our complex, evolving universe? We suggest the answer is no.
A pervasive wonder of the natural world is the evolution of varied systems, from stars to planets to minerals to life. These and other evolving systems are similar in the sense that they display three essential attributes: (1) these systems form from numerous components that have the potential to adopt combinatorially vast numbers of different configurations; (2) processes exist that generate numerous different configurations; and (3) configurations that possess enhanced function are preferentially selected and are incorporated into the evolving system. We conclude that natural systems evolve under selective pressures that involve a transfer of information from the environment to the evolving system. Accordingly, we propose the “law of increasing functional information”: The functional information of a system will increase (i.e., the system will evolve) if many different configurations of the system undergo selection for one or more functions.