Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics: An Alternate Evolutionary Hypothesis

An alternate evolutionary hypothesis is discussed: non-equilibrium thermodynamics. It is argued that evolution is an axiomatic consequence of organismic information obeying the second law of thermodynamics and is only secondarily connected to natural selection. As entropy increases, the information within a biological system becomes more complex or variable. This informational complexity is shaped or organized through historical, developmental, and environmental (natural selection) constraints. Biological organisms diversify or speciate at bifurcation points as the information within the system becomes too complex and disorganized. These speciation events are entirely stimulated by intrinsic informational disorganization and shaped by the extrinsic environment (in terms of natural selection). Essentially, the entropic drive to randomness underlies the phenomenon of both variation and speciation and is therefore, the ultimate cause of evolution.