Making Sense of Life through Thermodynamics

Evolution through natural selection has long been considered unique to biological systems, but similar patterns emerge from physical, chemical, technological, economic, and social processes. Skewed distributions, often near-lognormal, and sigmoidal courses, often power-law-approximated, appear across scales and scopes, making no distinction between living and non-living. This ubiquity suggests that evolution, in all its forms, expresses a universal principle in action. The second law of thermodynamics, derived from the statistical physics of open systems, explains the recurrent patterns: flows of energy naturally select whatever means and mechanisms that bring systems into dynamic balance with their surroundings, whether rich or poor in energy. In this view, order and disorder alike arise as consequences, not as preset causes pointing to stagnant equilibria. Although evolution, as a sequence of changes, is destined for the free-energy minimum—equivalent to the entropy maximum—its paths remain unpredictable, even chaotic, because by consuming its driving forces, the process alters its own course. Path dependence is evident in embryogenesis, morphogenesis, and phylogenesis, each driven by various forces, but less so in textbook physics, where motion is attributed to a single force. Natural processes become irreversible to the extent that the forces of return are depleted and functions are displaced. This plays out as pioneer species with basic functions give way to successors that consume more free energy across niches with their specialized functions. Thus, in the quest for balance, the trophic hierarchy reemerges and adaptive radiation recurs after disturbances or catastrophes. Unlike additive genetic models, thermodynamics naturally accounts for multiplicative dynamics and allometric scaling, as observed in processes such as proliferation, adaptation, speciation, cooperation, competition, and self-organization, ultimately resolving into degradation and extinction.