The Unified Theory and Selection Processes

  • Daniel R. Brooks
Chapter

Abstract

The patterns of evolutionary diversification and the distribution of biodiversity result from complex interactions between ecological components of evolution, explaining maintenance of biological systems, and genealogical components, explaining their origins. Evolutionary theory is under-developed with respect to questions of origin, and of integration among processes derived from “intrinsic” and “extrinsic” factors operating on different temporal and spatial scales. Biology has also resisted efforts to reconcile its general principles with basic natural laws of physics and chemistry, despite persistent indications that thermodynamics and statistical mechanics might provide the key (e.g. Boltzmann, 1877; Lotka, 1913, 1925; Lindeman, 1942; Prigogine & Wiame, 1946; Newman, 1970; Brooks & Wiley, 1986, 1988; Wicken, 1987; Demetrius, 1992; Salthe, 1993). The unified theory of evolution (Wiley & Brooks, 1982; Brooks & Wiley, 1986, 1988; Brooks et al., 1989; Brooks & McLennan, 1990; Maurer & Brooks, 1991; Brooks, 1992) asserts that 1. orderliness and organization in biological systems result from the interaction of historical uniqueness, cohesive tendencies among subunits of biological systems, and functional integration of those subunits, in addition to natural (environmental) and sexual selection; 2. current evolutionary theory lacks general explanations for the existence and expected effects of these three elements; and 3. finding such explanations requires extending some principles from general physico-chemical laws to complex biological systems.

Keywords

Natural Selection Sexual Selection Entropy Production Unify Theory Genetic System 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Bernstein, H.; Hopf, F.A.; Michod, R.O., 1988, Is meiotic recombination an adaptation for repairing DNA, producing genetic variation, or both?, in The Evolution of Sex, R.E. Michod and B.R. Levin (eds.), Sunderland Mass, Sinauer Assoc, pp. 139–160.Google Scholar
  2. Boltzmann, L., 1877, Über die Beziehung eines allgemeine mechanischen Satzes zum zweiten Haupsatzes der Warmtheorie, in Sitzungsber. Akad. Wiss., Math.-Naturwiss. KI., vol. 75, pp. 67–73.Google Scholar
  3. Brandon, R., 1990 (2nd ed.), Adaptation and Environment, Princeton, Princeton Univ. Press.Google Scholar
  4. Brillouin, L., 1962, Science and Information Theory, New York, Academic Press.Google Scholar
  5. Brooks, 1988, Scaling effects in historical biogeography: A new view of Space, Time and Form, Syst. Zool., vol. 37, pp. 237–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Brooks, D.R., 1992, Incorporating origins into evolutionary theory, in Understanding Origin: Contemporary Ideas on the Genesis of Life, Mind and Society, F. Varela and J.P. Dupuy (eds.), Amsterdan, Reidel/Kluwer Associates, pp. 191–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  7. Brooks, D.R.; Collier, J.; Maurer, B.A.; Smith, J.D.H.; Wiley, E.O., 1989, Entropy and information in evolving biological systems, Biol. Philos., vol. 4, pp. 407–432.Google Scholar
  8. Brooks, D.R.; Cumming, D.D.; LeBlond, P.H., 1988, Dollo’s law and the second law of thermodynamics: analogy or extension?, in Entropy, Information and Evolution: New Perspectives on Physical and Biological Evolution, B.H. Weber, D.J. Depew and J.D. Smith (eds.), MIT Press, Cambridge, pp. 189–224.Google Scholar
  9. Brooks, D.R.; LeBlond, P.H.; Cumming, D.D., 1984, Information and entropy in a simple evolution model, J. Theor. Biol., vol. 109, pp. 77–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. Brooks, D.R.; McLennan, D.A., 1990, Searching for a general theory of biological evolution, J. Ideas, vol. 1, pp. 35–46.Google Scholar
  11. Brooks, D.R.; McLennan, D.A., 1991, Phylogeny, Ecology and Behavior: A Research Program in Comparative Biology, Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
  12. Brooks, D.R.; Wiley, E.O., 1986 (1st ed.), Evolution as Entropy: Toward a Unified Theory of Biology, Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
  13. Brooks, D.R.; Wiley, E.O., 1988 (2nd ed.), Evolution as Entropy: Toward a Unified Theory of Biology, Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
  14. Collier, J., 1986, Entropy in evolution, Biol. Philos, vol. 1, pp. 5–24.Google Scholar
  15. Collier, J., 1988, Supervenience and reduction in biological hierarchies, in Philosophy and Biology: Canadian Journal of Philosophy, M. Matthen and B. Linsky (eds.), suppl. vol. 14.Google Scholar
  16. Collier, J., 1990, Intrinsic information, in Information, Language and Cognition: Vancouver Studies in Cognitive Science, University British Columbia Press, vol. 1.Google Scholar
  17. Collier, J., (in press), Incorporating Adaptation in Evolution as Entropy, in Between Instruction and Selection: Studies in a Unified Theory of Non-Equilibrium Biology, J.D. Collier and D. Siegel-Causey (eds.), Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
  18. Csânyi, V., 1989, Evolutionary Systems and Society: A General Theory, Durham, N.C., Duke Univ. Press.Google Scholar
  19. Darwin, C., 1872 (6th edition), The Origin of Species, London, John Murray (ed.).Google Scholar
  20. Demetrius, L., 1992, The thermodynamics of evolution, in Physica A, vol. 189, pp. 417–436.Google Scholar
  21. Depew, D.J.; Weber, B.H., 1995, Darwinism Evolving: Systems Dynamics and the Genealogy of Natural Selection, Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Press.Google Scholar
  22. Eigen, M.; Winkler, R., 1981, Laws of the Game: How the Principles of Nature Govern Chance, New York, A.A. Knop.Google Scholar
  23. Eldredge, N., 1985, Unfinished Synthesis, New York, Columbia Univ. Press.Google Scholar
  24. Eldredge, N., 1986, Information, economics and evolution, Ann. Rev. Ecol. Syst., vol. 17, pp. 351–369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  25. Eldredge, N.; Salthe, S. N., 1984, Hierarchy and evolution, in Oxford Surveys in Evolutionary Biology, R. Dawkins and M. Ridley (eds.), vol. 1, pp. 182–206.Google Scholar
  26. Frautschi, S., 1982, Entropy in an expanding universe, Science, vol. 217, pp. 593–599.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  27. Frautschi, S., 1982, Entropy in an expanding universe, in Entropy, Information and Evolution: New Perspectives on Physical and Biological Evolution, B. Weber, D.J. Depew and J.D. Smith (eds.), Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Press, pp. 11–22.Google Scholar
  28. Gatlin, L.L., 1972, Information Theory and the Living System, New York, Columbia Univ. Press.Google Scholar
  29. Harvey, P.; Pagel, M., 1991, The Comparative Method in Evolutionary Biology, Oxford, Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
  30. Landsberg, P.T., 1984a, Can entropy and ‘order“ increase together?, Physics Len., vol. 102A, pp. 171–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  31. Layzer, D., 1975, The arrow of time, Sci. Amer., vol. 233, pp. 56–69.Google Scholar
  32. Layzer, D., 1978, A macroscopic approach to population genetics, J. Theor. Biol., vol. 73, pp. 769–788.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  33. Layzer, D., 1980, Genetic variation and progressive evolution, Amer. Nat., vol. 115, pp. 809–826.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  34. Lindeman, R.L., 1942, The trophic dynamic aspect of ecology, Ecology, vol. 23, pp. 399–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  35. Lotka, A.J., 1913, Evolution from the standpoint of physics, the principle of the persistence of stable forms, Sci. Amer. suppl., vol. 75, pp. 345–346, p. 354, p. 379.Google Scholar
  36. Lotka, A.J., 1925, Elements of Physical Biology, Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore.Google Scholar
  37. Maurer, B.A.; Brooks, D.R., 1991, Energy flow and entropy production in biological systems, J. Ideas, vol. 2, pp. 48–53.Google Scholar
  38. Maynard Smith, J., 1976, What determines the rate of evolution?, Amer. Nat., vol. 110, pp. 331–338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  39. Newman, S.A., 1970, Note on complex systems, J. Theor. Biol., vol. 28, pp. 411–413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  40. Prigogine, I., 1980, From Being to Becoming, W.H. Freeman, San Francisco.Google Scholar
  41. Prigogine, I.; Wiame, J.M., 1946, Biologie et thermodynamique des phénomènes irréversibles, Experientia, vol. 2, pp. 451–453.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  42. Salthe, S.N., 1985, Evolving Hierarchical Systems: Their Structure and Representation, Columbia Univ. Press, New York.Google Scholar
  43. Salthe, S.N., 1993, Development and Evolution: Complexity and Change in Biology, MIT Press, Boston.Google Scholar
  44. Schank, J.C.; Wimsatt, W.C., 1988, Generative retrenchment and evolution, in PSA 86, vol. 2, A. Fine and P.K. Machamer (eds.), Philosophy of Science Association, East Lansing, Michigan, pp. 33–60.Google Scholar
  45. Smith, J.D.H., 1988, A class of mathematical models for evolution and hierarchical information theory, Inst. Math. Appl. Preprint Series, vol. 396, pp. 1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  46. Smith, J.D.H., in press, Mathematical approaches to the unified theory of biology, in Between Instruction and Selection: Studies in a Unified Theory of Non-Equilibrium Biology, J.D. Collier and D. Siegel-Causey (eds.), Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
  47. Ulanowicz, R.E., 1986, Growth and Development: Ecosystems Phenomenology, New York, Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  48. Wade, M.J.; Kalisz, S., 1990, The causes of natural selection, Evolution, vol. 44, pp. 1947–1955.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  49. Wake, D.B.; Roth, G. (eds.), 1989, Complex Organism! Functions: Integration and Evolution in Vertebrates, Dahlem Workshop, New York, Wiley.Google Scholar
  50. Wicken, J.S., 1987, Evolution, Thermodynamics and Information: Extending the Darwinian Paradigm, Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
  51. Wiley, E.O., 1981, Phylogenetics: The Theory and Practice of Phylogenetic Systematics, Wiley-Intersci., New York.Google Scholar
  52. Wiley, E.O.; Brooks, D. R., 1982, A non-equilibrium approach to evolution, Syst. Zool, vol. 31, pp. 1–24.Google Scholar
  53. Wiley, E.O.; Mayden, R. L., 1985, Species and speciation in phylogenetic systematics, with examples from the North American fish fauna, Ann. Mo. Bot. Garden, vol. 72, pp. 596–635.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  54. Zotin, A.I.; Zotina, R.S., 1978, Experimental basis for qualitative phenomenological theory of development, in Thermodynamics of Biological Processes, I. Lamprecht & A. I. Zotin (eds.), Berlin, deGruyter, pp. 61–84.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 1998

Authors and Affiliations

  • Daniel R. Brooks
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of ZoologyUniversity of TorontoTorontoCanada

Personalised recommendations