Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: Neo-Darwinian evolution theory explains how organisms with their appear-ance of purposive design came into existence without being designed. The centrepiece of the explanation is a physical object, the gene, and the processes it undergoes: mainly, replication and natural selection. The compatibility of that theory with the laws of physics has been challenged, by claims that self-reproduction of living cells, essential to gene replication, is incompatible with quantum theory. Wigner, notably, argued that it would require design-bearing laws of physics. Here I show that self-reproduction is compatible with no-design laws of physics, in particular with quantum theory, by expressing self-reproduction, replication and the appearance of design clearly within physics, using the recently proposed constructor theory. I also show that aside from sufficient resources such as time and energy, the only requirement on the laws of physics for evolution to be possible is that they permit digital information. 1
Author: Chiara Marletto
Institution: University of Oxford
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3099603615