Abstract
It is shown that biological-natural-selection-like behavior can occur, as a general type of time evolution, in a statistical system where detailed balance is violated owing to the presence of metastable energy states. A model of a non-equilibrium phase transition corresponding to the spontaneous origin of self-reproduction in the system is suggested. After a phase transition, the system passes from one quasistationary distribution of self-reproducing subsystems to another, with an increase in the total organization, as long as the growth of the energy flow through the system or a reduction of energy dissipation in the system is possible. The entropy production is calculated for this process in terms of “selective values” of Eigen's theory for self-organization in autocatalytic systems. Correspondence of the extremal principle of Eigen's theory with the criterion of evolution in Prigogine's thermodynamics is established.
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Chudnovsky, E.M. Thermodynamics of natural selection. J Stat Phys 41, 877–897 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01010008
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01010008