Evolution to Complexity

It is undeniable that there is a tendency in living organisms to evolve from lower to higher states of complexity. Thus, complex life evolved from self-replicating molecules to sophisticated cellular mechanisms to multicellular organisms and populations of organisms, and this trend to more complex forms does not seem to stop. Although the theory of Darwinian evolution explains how organisms adapt to their environment, fails when trying to explain why complexity is always raising. All levels of complexity coexist in our planet, so, it is naive to afirm that more complex forms of life are better adapted than simpler ones. Therefore, natural selection cannot explain evolution towards complexity. This book aims to weave a new theory in which Darwinian evolution remains important, but the evolution towards complexity is guided above all by the evolutionary innovations that individual elements to communicate in better ways. Thus, the emergence of the eukaryotic cell was possible due to an endosymbiotic event between two bacteria; the multicellular organism was possible due to innovations in chemical and electrical communication between cells; communities and individuals are possible due to the development of forms of communication such as language, coupled with technologies that increase the range within relations can be established among individuals. The book argues that, contrary to the old view that life needs high doses of negative entropy and therefore is an unlikely phenomenon in the universe, the evolution of the complexity is associated with high entropy because elements undergo a process of simplifaication once those elements come into a cooperative relationship. That simplification with consequent increment in entropy is what gives the character of irreversible to evolution toward complexity. In the energetics sense, evolution towards complexity is not exclusive to living organisms, but on the contrary, is an extension of the evolution of inanimate matter. This evolution can be compared to a fall. Like a ball on top of a hill has a maximum potential energy that dissipates as it falls making the system more stable once it reaches the ground, the early universe had a huge potential energy given by the three natural forces. These three forces linked subatomic particles in more stable states forming atoms, and atoms with other atoms to form stars, galaxies and heavier elements. Life is a continuation of this trend. The fall brought about by the electromagnetic force determines the formation of complex molecules of life, and the interaction of molecules to form complexity. In that sense, there is no real border between inanimate matter and life forms. It corresponds to natural selection to try out a myriad of combinations until an innovation takes the great leap that will allow the emergence of the next level of complexity. That way life is made of layers, like an onion, each with its own implicit complexity. However in all levels of complexity from the cell to complex communities, the same fundamental principles apply which are repeated as fractals: scale restrictions that do not allow the accumulation of complexity so that it accumulates in the next higher level, simplification of the lower level as the next level increases in complexity, sophistication in cooperation of the elements, etc. Overall, the book is a journey of arguments to a theory of evolution towards complexity that ultimately results in the superorganisms.
About the Author: Dr. Edwin F. Herrera-Paz is a physician and human geneticist who studies ethnic populations in Honduras, Central America. He is a professor of human genetics and physiology at the Universidad Católica de Honduras and international consultant to CAAPA (Consortium on Asthma in African-ancestry Populations of the Americas), a project leaded by Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore, Maryland. His work has been published in prestigious peer reviewed scientific journals.