1 Is bio evolution part of Cosmo evolution? Peter Zamarovský ČVUT FEL

2 “What meaning has evolution of living creatures in the world described by thermodynamics, in the world of permanently increasing disorder?” Ilya Prigogine, Isabelle Stengers 1984

3 God had given enigmatic skill to the power of Nature to make it able to change itself without chaos to perfect cosmic system. Kant, I.,

4 Evolution – “evolvere“ – develop itself, complex long lasting process - movement of complex systems directed to higher levels of organization, higher aims, “creative development” (Bergson), “increase of values” (Teilhard de Chardin), process of progress = “good” - axiological, teleological approach (typical in the case of living systems) ? But: what is “higher”, “long lasting”, “progress”? Values … for whom? Evolutionary changes are generally recognized as producing progressively higher organization in the organic world.

5 Evolution which leads to creation and development of life on the Earth (or other place in the Universe), the “complex motion” of Universe Evolution of Earth (geo-evolution) and evolution of whole Universe (cosmo-evolution), „complex motion of Universe“. Evolution is caused by interaction of movements on two levels: microscopic and megascopic Microscopic – thermal motion of micro particles (heat): quarks, subnuclear particles, atoms, ions, molecules Mesoskopic (macroscopic) motion – directly perceivable motion of macroscopic objects: asteroids, planets, stars(?) Megascopic global motion – rarefaction of universe, recession of galaxies, expansion of space, creation of darkness

6 Cosmogony - Cosmo evolution Rarefaction of universe, expanasion of space → cooling of matter (stuff) → structuration, organization Quark-gluon plasma → subnuclear particles → neutral atoms (hydrogen) – period of „recombination“→ dark period Homogeneous Universe without structures, only fluctuations of concentration (temperature, pressure) Gravitational instabilities → enlargement of fluctuations (as drops in overcooled vapor) → creation of stars → structuration of the Universe End of dark period stars + dark space

7 Cosmogony - thermodynamic (des) interpretation? Clausius and Darwin can not be both right. Caillois, R., 1976 ( , French anthropologist) If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell's equations — then so much the worse for Maxwell's equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation — well these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation. Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington Gifford Lectures (1927), The Nature of the Physical World (1928), 74

8 There is only There is only one law of Nature — the second law of thermodynamics — which recognises a distinction between past and future more profound than the difference of plus and minus. It stands aloof from all the rest.... It opens up a new province of knowledge, namely, the study of organisation; and it is in connection with organisation that a direction of time-flow and a distinction between doing and undoing appears for the first time. Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington The Nature of the Physical World (1928), “The entropy of the universe tends to a maximum.” - This statement is the best-known phrasing of the second law. Moreover, owing to the general broadness of the terminology used here, e.g. universe, as well as lack of specific conditions, e.g. open, closed, or isolated, to which this statement applies, many people take this simple statement to mean that the second law of thermodynamics applies virtually to every subject imaginable. This, of course, is not true; this statement is only a simplified version of a more complex description. universe

9 The tendency for entropy to increase in isolated systems is expressed in the second law of thermodynamics — perhaps the most pessimistic and amoral formulation in all human thought. Gregory HillGregory Hill and Kerry Thornley, Principia Discordia (1965) Kerry ThornleyPrincipia Discordia Gregory HillKerry ThornleyPrincipia DiscordiaBut: 1. The second law is valid for closed system only. Earth, living animal, plant, human are not in any case “closed systems”. Is the Universe “closed system”? 2. The second law is valid in “human scale factor” (limits of thermodynamics – Boltzmann, Poincaré) Expansion of the Universe – global increase of entropy (?expansion to vacuum?) – local decrease of entropy (structuration, organisation, design) dissipative processes – self organization (Kant) helps dissipate energy and circulate matter, self ordering, being → creation of new forms (things), design (?Fritjof Capra: ordering non reducible, new principle – neovitalism?)

10 Analogy with terrestrial processes (Belovousov Zhabotinski phenomenon, Benard cells – cellular structure on heated layer of liquid, grating of doors, violin, waves on sea…) Iliya Prigogine and non equilibrium thermodynamics Design features (patterns, rhythms, configurations, scaling rules) are present in all flow systems in nature. Dissipative structure (Life) is child of flow of energy Heraclitus – river, flame…

11 For a finite-size system to persist in time (to live) it must evolve in such a way that it provides easier access to the imposed currents that flow through it. constructal law (Adrian Bejan 1996) the principle of least action ? Life is flow, all flow systems are live systems, the animate and the inanimate. Design generation and evolution is a phenomenon of physics. Designs have the universal tendency to evolve in a certain direction in time. "Everything that moves is a flow system that evolves over time... The changes we witness in animals, plants, and rivers represent a clear improvement over the configuration that had been flowing before."

12 “Improvement” is not a word usually associated with evolution. Harvard professor (until his death in 2002) Stephen J. Gould summed up most biologists' view: "The basic theory of natural selection talks not about predictable universal progress, or any inherent direction of evolution."

13 Thermodynamical interpretation: Live as dissipative process Gap between physics (non equilibrium thermodynamics) and biology (F. Capra, „The Web of Life“) Living creatures can emerge if necessary conditions are fulfilled: surface of Earth and two billions of years. Weizsäcker, C. F. [1][1] Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker ( ) německý jaderný fyzik, filosof a veřejný činitel

14  Behind is attempt to reduce biology to physics  Opposite approach: reduce physics to biology, application of biological way of consideration to universe (Anaxagoras – biological reductionism?)  James Lovelock: Hypothesis Gaia  Lee Smolin: The Life of the Cosmos (1999): Black holes → new universes

15 Conclusion  Global rarefaction (expansion) of universe – motor of structuration, design, organization, evolution and life  Is it also motor for creative development?  Life, organization, humans … do not need energy (there was much more density of energy in the past), but the flow of energy → negative entropy.  Value = information, negative entropy? (reduction of axiology to informatics and physics)  We need both: source of energy (Sun, approx K) and sink of energy, source of “negative energy” – dark sky (approx. 3 K)