What does the fossil register teach us about the history of life on earth? Evolution has occurred during critical events of great dimension where Information and the four fundamental forces of nature acted upon matter. Linnaeus taxonomy, scrupulously developed during the eighteenth century maintains, up to our days, its scientific validity. We believe that this taxonomy can be taken as a departure for a deeper and more systematic insight of evolution and its relationship to the critical events. Let us explain:
1) The emergence of the Prokaryotic cell: 3600 million years ago. [ Note 15 ]
Existence of the hyper-kingdom of the Protokaryotic cell. During the diversification of some of these cells, some go into extinction, some stagnate in their given kingdom that still exists, but others, in improbable possibilities, evolve toward:
2) Emergence of the Protists and Eucariotas kingdoms: 1400 million years ago.
Existence of the Protists and Eucariotas kingdoms. The previous cycle repeats itself. In the Protists kingdom, some elements stagnate in their given kingdom that still exists. Some go into extinction, unable to cope with the environmental stress. In the Eucariotas kingdom, the cycle repeats itself, some elements go into extinction, some prevail, surviving to our own very era in what can only be described as a state of stagnation, though undergoing processes of adaptation and diversifying. Ultimately, only some of these cells evolve, only those capable of interacting with their environment by processing the Information that would lead them toward:
3) Emergence of the Eucariotic kingdom, which splits into three kingdoms: fungi, vegetal and animal: 675 million years ago.
Existence of the three kingdoms: Vegetal, Animal, Fungi. The ecosystems by which the elements of these kingdoms go extinct, stagnate or evolve are clearer. Members from each of the kingdoms, either stagnate evolve. In the case of the vegetable and animal kingdom we could say that members of the kingdoms co-evolve. Here we first are able to appreciate how evolution really entails the evolution of ecosystems, leading toward:
4) Emergence of types, or phyla, in the Cambrian fauna: 570 million years ago.
Existence of arthropods, bivalves, annelids, sponges and chordates in the animal kingdom and the corresponding varieties in the vegetable kingdom (for the purposes of this work, we refer to the animal kingdom, underscoring the ancestors of the human specie). All the phyla, with exception of the chordates, go extinct or stagnate, adapting or diversifying into classes by means of the appropriate mechanisms. Some chordates co evolve with the emerging ecosystems once they are capable of interact with such ecosystems.
5) Emergence of classes: 360 million years ago.
Existence of mammals and other classes as birds, reptile, amphibian and fish. All of these classes undergo the same cycle that occurred in the previous stages, going extinct or stagnating. Nevertheless, it is at this stage that some mammals and their ecosystems take a giant step forward in the evolutionary process.
6) Emergence of orders: 65 million years ago.
Existence of primates and other orders such as rodents, carnivores, etc. These orders undergo a similar cycle than on the other stages, but some primates co-evolve toward:
7) Emergence of families: 10 million years ago.
Existence of hominids and other families such as tarsids and lemurs.
8) Emergence of genre; 3 million years ago.
Existence of Homo sapiens and other genre such as Homo erectus, Homo ergaster, Homo habilis, Homo hidelbergensis, Homo neanderthalensis, Homo rudolfensis, etc. Unlike in the previous evolutionary stages, the entire genre listed above went extinct, but one. We yet have to determine to what extent the only genre that survived, our kind, Homo sapiens, was responsible for the extinction of these other genres and whether Homo sapiens merely eliminated them or absorbed them.
9) Emergence of species or classes.
In the human being we cannot speak of the diversification of a genus within the species. According to Jorge Crisci there are at lest ten definitions of what a species is. Some are biological, some agamic, some evolutionary, some economic, some ecological etc. In the field of taxonomy, we lack an universally accepted definition of what constitutes a species. Therefore, each author chooses the definition that suits him best [ Note 16 ]. We think that the last evolutionary leap took place when genres emerged. Species are merely diversifications, mutations or adaptations.
Figure 2. Here are the aforementioned critical events. The thick line represents the human lineage and its evolution according to critical events. The thin lines represent the stagnation which Linnaeus' taxonomy describes. The extinct ions which occur in the critical events are omitted for the sake of clarity. The curved line on top represents the increase of complexity, which is given in exponential form.
Figure 3a. Type adaptation and diversification
Figure 3b. Class adaptation and diversification
If evolution were only the history of adaptations and diversification, we would only have changes and branching due to descent. Therefore, the representation would be kindred to that of a tree, phylogenic, so to speak, as we see in figures 3a and 3b. The trunk and the branches correspond to the ancestors of the species, while the ends of the branches would be the current species. But, this representation does not include complexity, which as we have seen, is an important variable because it is the crux to actual evolution. For that reason, we suggest that the correct representation is the one which includes complexity in a third dimension, with the combination of figures 2 and 3.
If we do not have a thesis to prove knowledge will never move forward. But by the same token, if we do not test existing theses, knowledge will stagnate. To explain the critical events in terms of quantum mechanics, we believe that there is a vital link between the science of quantum mechanics and the resonance process contained within the structure that houses the Information of organisms which evolve with the quantum fields of Information. To this end, we have to take a revolutionary step to get closer to understanding the physical basis of the evolutionary processes. Only such step could further our understanding of the way we relate to nature.
In every evolutionary system we can discern the following stages:
- a) Growth, the acquisition of order and complexity.
- b) Stasis, the occurrence of minor destructive and constructive events (Adaptation).
- c) Decline, an entropic stage. It forces a given system to decline until it reaches equilibrium, its time stops flowing.
- d) Evolution. In major critical events a small percentage of systems acquire the necessary Information to become more complex, as we will explain now.
We will reconsider what we have argued many times, Information is a preexistent, fundamental energy, which increment of Complexity is an integral part of the structure that contains it. Every system with greater complexity only develops based on another system with lesser complexity.
The fundamental laws that allow the universe to function are dictated by thermodynamics, one among other branches of science. In this work we will emphasize the second law. Originally, this law describes the events of any physical and chemical transformation. It reads as follows: A fragment of useful energy is always lost in the form of heat. This second law was discovered when scientists where studying steam-engines. At its inception then, the law had solely pragmatic purposes. It emerged as scientists where trying to figure out how much use they could muster from heat. According to the first law of thermodynamics, energy is never lost, it only gets transformed. But it is not possible to change all of the heat into useful energy, because the second law states that in the natural course of events, a certain amount of energy becomes unusable for latter uses within the system.
Currently, we understand the second law in a more profound and comprehensive way. The matter of how much energy is usable has become merely one of the myriad facets the law explains. We owe alternative version to the second law of thermodynamics to Rudolph Clausius, who explained, quantitatively, the impossibility of turning all energy into work and would call entropy the measure that made this possible, a purely mathematical magnitude, an artifice. For Cassius, entropy is a fixed relationship between magnitudes, which measures the change of nature in one direction and tends toward its increment. For a while, this theory held little interest from scientific circles. Nevertheless, the study of molecules would change this. Ultimately, scientists would realize the importance of the theory and argue, as a dogma, that the universe tends toward entropy.
Boltzman discovered that the reason for which heat cannot be converted completely into mechanical energy is due to a natural tendency toward disorder. For him, natural processes follow one direction, toward greater disorder. Consequently, he identifies entropy as the measuring stick for the disorder within a system. He demonstrated, though, that entropy does not represent an absolute. His work focused on statistics because it was not possible to measure the movement of the too many molecules in a system.
Equilibrium is the most probable state of a system. Within equilibrium, there are no processes and all the usable energy has been consumed and transformed into useless energy, because entropy has reached its peak. If time went by when entropy increased, now it has stopped. In the state of equilibrium the time within and of the system does not flow because its duration has run its course. The Information that identifies it has been liberated and only that which gives its characteristics to matter remains, such as molecules and atoms.
The second law of thermodynamics condemns every system to degeneration, to decay, to rotten and die. Sidewalks crack, houses age, each consecutive transliteration is degeneration, stars fade. The rule that argues that every system tends toward equilibrium entails that everything tends toward homogeneity. If something is dry it will tend toward humidity. If a metal bar has more electrons on one tip than on the other, it will develop an electric current until the bar becomes equilibrated, balanced, homogenized. If an academic institution locks itself up within its own doctrines and dogmas and only utilized its own graduates, it commits academic incest. Consequently its products will be homogeneous, to say the least. Entropy is a reality that works at every level.
Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry propose a Cosmo genetic principle that allows us to see the evolution of the universe in a more realistic perspective. We should consider their principle as a complement to the second law of thermodynamics, since it argues the dynamic by which order and its concomitants, tendency toward Information and Complexity, are attained. This principle sustains that the second law of thermodynamics is statistical, since in certain conditions entropy can invert itself to an neguentropic state. According to what we have suggested elsewhere, the capturing of a certain amount of Information allows for evolution and is conceived as an improbable possibility [ Note 17 ]. Throughout fifteen thousand million years, these neguentropic processes have been and still are responsible for the creation of structures at grand scale, the base of all that exists. Through such Cosmo genetic principle we can conclude that, firstly, evolution is the tendency toward order, toward unity, toward building, and secondly, the tendency toward disorder, following the Teilhardian law that tells us that everything that is armed is disarmed. To ignore the current understanding of the second law is to ignore the way in which evolution works.
Evolution, as such diverse authors have said, as Gould and Eldrige (Punctuated Equilibrium) or Teilhard de Chardin (thresholds, critical points), occurs during critical events which are guided through the second law of thermodynamics. However, other laws interfere, namely, those of quantum mechanics, laws of power, such as the Gutenberg Richter, which controls the cosmic events as much as earthquakes, stellar quakes, meteorite impacts etc. And also there are unformulated laws still.
Information is the basic element of evolution. An important consideration is that the elemental particles of Information have no mass; they are bosons, following the Bose-Einstein statistic which describes the way in which different particles at different energy register organize themselves. This means that any number of these particles can be at the same energy level and this allows the Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), meaning, the formation of substance perfectly condensed in such a way that all of its particles are integrated into a "gigantic" particle.
Figure 4. Particle Interactions.
For the BEC state to occur, it is necessary that the particles engage in resonance. In the model that we propose, Information enters a state BEC, integrates and makes the system more complex so that it evolves and manages to fulfill the prerequisite of unity. No process in classical physics explains this kind of unity and until recently not even quantum mechanics described the phenomenon. Currently, physicists as well as philosophers have begun to be surprised by such description.
How can that Information enter a condensed phase? What type of mechanism is required to "align" the Informational particles in such a way that they satisfy the requisites to reach the highly ordered state found in a BEC? Dana Zohar [ Note 18 ] addresses a mechanism that seems to fulfill the prerequisites and makes the process feasible. It is a "pump system," present in biological tissue, similar to the one proposed by professor Herbert Fröhlich at Liverpool University. This "Fröhlich System" is simply a system of vibration of electrically charged molecules to which energy is pumped. As long as these molecules vibrate, they emit electromagnetic photons. Fröhlich demonstrated that beyond a given threshold, any amount of additional energy pumped into a system, makes molecules vibrate in unison, makes them, in other words, resonate. If this is increased, it takes the molecules to the maximum ordered stage of a condensed phase, the BEC phase. For our own purpose, this synchronicity is reached when Information particles interact with electromagnetic energy and integrate a particle with more energy, with more Information. It is necessary to note that the electromagnetic energy required in the critical events is obtained from the cosmic events to which we have referred as "disarming" the structure of preexisting systems in order to let a few new systems reassemble, with new Informational particles.
The more distinctive and crucial characteristic of a BEC is that the elements of the new system do not only behave as a whole, but rather become a whole, loosing their individuality. Upon the onset of complexity, the links between the elements become more flexible and consequently the degrees of freedom of the elements within the system increase. A good analogy could be the individual's voices of a choir which come together to become a single sound, creating certain levels of harmony, or the bowing of many strings from different violins, which in unison come through as the "sound of violins." Now we have an idea of why the structures emerging from a critical event have more Information and are therefore more complex. This mechanism is the one that evolution utilizes to fend the second law of thermodynamics, which, as we have seen, predicts that every system tends toward disorder. For us, the degree of unity in a state BEC is that that is achieved when all the separated states of Information manage to interlope completely.
The electromagnetism that takes place in cosmic events such as earthquakes, meteorite collisions, volcanic eruptions, etc., provides the energy necessary to the evolution of a system. This energy, which varies according to the intensity of the event, causes the vibration of Informational particles, leading them to a BEC state and eventually to their integration. On their own turn, the critical events are ruled but laws of power such as the Gutenberg-Richter one which we have mentioned.
Evolution is a phenomenon worth speculating about, worth philosophizing, to try, at best, to fathom the magnitude of the processes which have intervened to make it possible. To the scientific community's chagrin, for which the validity of any given phenomenon is based on whether or not such phenomenon can be replicated within the walls of a laboratory, evolution cannot be replicated within the walls of any laboratory. The periods within which evolution took place are so prolonged, even when we focus on the "brief" critical periods, that they elude any possibility of direct or controlled observation. But this is not all. The growing complexity of the evolutionary processes wedged within a frame of interactions so deep and varied, ruled by laws that we as human beings are only beginning to understand, that it is impossible to study or understand them if we subscribe to the orthodox cannons of the scientific methods.
Evolution is not adaptation. Adaptation is a process which could determine descent and modification. Evolution is neither a continuous event nor a fruit of chance. It is, in fact, a process where complexity accrues and in which directly or indirectly, close or far, all the systems that exist, material and immaterial participate. As we have said, biological evolution cannot be replicated. But it can be altered and even interrupted or extinguished altogether. Evolution is not susceptible to be directed at will, adaptation is.
Currently, the earth is orbiting a period of stasis. What we believe as evolution is merely adaptations to an environment which is adapting and we are adapting in our turn. The environment which we as humans are shaping and reshaping, however, is less and less conductive for the natural process of evolution. With the sped-up destruction of our ecosystems, we also accelerated the depletion of complex systems.
A valid, apt and urgent question would be whether human beings, as a system that evolved, has ran on empty, has depleted its capacities and possibilities to acquire complexity and whether human society is the new system, entering a new tag in the Linnaean taxonomy, which will eventually fold as a new element in the great ecosystem.
[15] Lapses indicate how long ago the groups emerged. [ Back ]
[16] CRISCI, Jorge. La especie: realidad y conceptos. In Taxonomía Biológica. Ediciones Científicas Universitarias UNAM 1994.In this article Crisci quotes Lewis Carroll, when in his book Through the Looking Mirror narrates a conversation between Alice and Zanco Panco. In the dialogue Zanco Panco assures that "glory" means "irrefutable argument" When Alice questions his assertion, Zanco Panco answers that it is true because he has the power and he says so. [ Back ]
[17] Gabriel Hernán Gebauer has proposed that the "improbable possibilities" which Gould claims rule evolution, are the result of an increase of information in structures which increase in complexity during anti-antropic stages. In the case of evolution, they occur mainly during critical events. [ Back ]
[18] ZOHAR, Danah, The Quantum Self (Human nature and consciousness defined by the new physics), Quill/William Morrow, NY, 1990. [ Back ]
