Researchers Robert Hazen and Michael Wong have put forward a bold new law of nature — one that could explain how everything in the universe evolves, from atoms, minerals and stars to living cells, ecosystems and even human civilization. At the heart of their theory is the idea that information is as fundamental to the cosmos as mass, energy or charge. Their law revolves around a concept called functional information — a measure of the ratcheting-up of complexity and function in evolving systems over time.
PAPERS:
- "On the roles of function and selection in evolving systems" (2023); M. Wong, C. Cleland, D. Arend Jr, S. Bartlett, H. J. Cleaves II, H. Demarest, A. Prabhu, J. I. Lunine, R. Hazen - https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2310223120
- "Functional information: Molecular messages" (2003); J. Szostak - https://www.nature.com/articles/423689a
--------
CHAPTERS
00:00 The 'Law of Functional Information', a theory
01:19 The ten laws of classical physics
01:37 Entropy, the arrow of time and complexification
02:35 Three shared traits of all evolving systems
04:02 Three types of of selective persistence
05:36 Functional information explained in depth
07:41 Calculating functional information in Earth's minerals
09:46 Looking for functional information in our solar system
10:46 Criticisms of the theory
---------
Quanta Magazine is an editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation. We focus on developments in mathematics, theoretical physics, theoretical computer science and the basic life sciences.
READ free math and science articles on the Quanta website: www.quantamagazine.org
LEARN about the Simons Foundation: www.simonsfoundation.org
FOLLOW our social channels:
- Instagram: quantamag
- Bluesky: @quantamagazine.bsky.social‬
- Facebook: quantanews
- X: quantamagazine