AUTOCATALYSIS AS THE NATURAL PHILOSOPHY
UNDERLYING COMPLEXITY AND
BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION
Güngör Gündüz
Department of Chemical Engineering, Middle East Technical UniversityAnkara, Turkey
Received: 28. March 2011. Accepted: 27. June 2011.
ABSTRACT
The importance and different aspects of autocatalysis in evolution was analyzed. The behaviour of autocatalytic reactions mainly the Lotka-Volterra and the Schlögl equations were discussed in terms of phase change, entropy, and their oscillation frequency. The increase of complexity as the general direction of evolution was examined on some patterns in terms of both their entropy and information content. In addition, the relation between stability and functionality, stability and cohesion were discussed. It was concluded that evolution drifts in the direction of increasing complexity as a kind of natural philosophy to counteract the increase of entropy in the universe.
KEY WORDS
autocatalysis, entropy, evolution, complexity, information, oscillation frequency, cohesion
CLASSIFICATION
JEL: C02, Z19
PACS: 01.70.+w, 89.75.-k
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