Abstract
The environment is a continuous source of matter and energy, which dynamizes the adaptive processes of biological systems, so that these systems emerge, persist or are extinguished as a consequence of their reactions to the environment. This perspective, forged from classical physics, gives way to multiple ecological theories, with evolution being the most prominent one. In all these cases, information would be both dependent and subsequent to matter and energy. Thus, the emergence and dynamics of genetic material or ecological attributes such as abundance, richness or diversity depend mainly on the interaction of these two fundamental states. However, recent approaches from quantum physics and complexity views put forward the notion that information can be independent and prior to matter and energy, which allows us to see ecological processes from another perspective, i.e., as including complex biological systems as capable of showing emergent properties such as cognition. We proposed here a set of postulates and ideas that suggests how the ability to manipulate (internalize, integrate, store and generate) information can be developed by those systems, which would directly and non-randomly influence ecological attributes and their dynamics; i.e., how this property can possibly help replacing the notion of the environment as the ultimate cause of changes. Besides fully detailing the sources of knowledge and our rationale in this sense, we have also discussed how these thoughts and possibilities can be employed in devising better and more comprehensive approaches for biological conservation strategies.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Drs. Pavel Dodonov, Rodrigo Severo and Zolacir Trindade Oliveira Jr. for their helpful comments and suggestions to improve the manuscript. We also thank the Programa de Alianzas para la Educación y la Capacitación (PAEC), from OAS-GCUB (Grupo Coimbra de Universidades Brasileiras), for intermediation of the doctoral fellowship granted to JCJM by the government funding agency CAPES (Brazilian Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel–Finance Code 001). The doctoral course and research infrastructure were provided by the Post-graduation Program in Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation (PPG-ECB) at the State University of Santa Cruz (UESC) Brazil.
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Jaimes-Martínez, J.C., Loguercio, L.L. Does nature learn? Information integration and rare events in systems of increasing complexity. Biol Philos 39, 7 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-024-09942-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-024-09942-4