Direction Before Life: Emergence of Causal Asymmetry and Time Direction in a Pre-Biological Field System
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: How does direction arise in nature? Why do systems evolve forward rather than remain symmetric or reversible? These questions are traditionally addressed within biology, chemistry, or thermodynamics—yet all such frameworks already presume directional structure. In this study, we investigate whether directionality itself can emerge prior to biology, chemistry, or explicit selection mechanisms. Using a global field-based simulation initialized under strictly symmetric conditions—with no predefined time direction, causal ordering, entropy gradient, matter fields, or biological processes—we observe the spontaneous formation of stable causal asymmetry and persistent directional organization. The system develops robust causal networks, preferential evolutionary pathways, and irreversible global structure despite the absence of replication, fitness functions, or genetic encoding. Quantitative measures reveal high causal density, non-random complexity, and long-term stability, indicating that the observed directionality is not a transient fluctuation but an emergent dynamical property. These results suggest that directional organization may be a fundamental feature of complex systems, potentially preceding and enabling biological evolution rather than arising from it. The findings have implications for origin-of-life research, the foundations of evolutionary theory, nonequilibrium physics, and pre-biotic cosmology, offering a computational existence proof that asymmetry and direction can arise in purely non-biological systems.
Author: Slawson, Drew
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7115722162
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