Principles and Mechanisms of Biological Evolution - Molecular Theory of the Living Cell - page 487

According to the Second Law of thermodynamics, the entropy of an isolated
system increases toward a maximum (Sect. 2.1.4 ) as indicated in Row 5 above.
Analogously, some open systems such as organisms that are endowed with the
abilities (1) to self-reproduce and (2) to increase their complexity actively may
exhibit the tendency to increase their complexity from one generation to the next
(i.e., on a phylogenetic time scale), obeying what is here referred to as the Law of
Maximum Complexity (LMC) (see Row 5, Table 14.6 ). Thus defined, LMC is a law
that is applicable to living systems (as both individuals and groups) and seems to
capture the essential characteristics of living systems which may be identified with
what Kirschner and Gerhart (1998) refer to as the evolvability of life.
The Law of Maximum Complexity (LMC), or alternatively the Maximum
Complexity Principle (MCP) (in analogy to the Maximum Entropy Principle ,
another name for the Second Law), may be logically derived from the Second
Law of Thermodynamics (SLT) (Sect. 2.1.4 ) and the Law of Requisite Variety
(LRV) (Sect. 5.3.2 ), if we can assume that

1. The environment of living systems embody “passive complexity” which increases
with time as the result of the operation of SLT (equivalent to Statement 14.9.
2. Living systems embody “active complexity” which is kept at least as complex as
that of their environment in order to maintain the homeostasis of self-replication
(equivalent to Statements 14.10 and 14.11).

We can represent this derivation in the form of a syllogism:

1. SLT: The passive complexity of the environment of living systems increases
with time.
2. LRV: Living systems must increase their complexity actively to keep up with
the increasing environmental complexity in order to maintain self-replication.
3. LMC: Therefore, the active complexity of living systems must increase with
time in order for them to survive. Or algebraically thus:

LMC ¼ LRV þ SLT (14.16)

If this syllogism is true, it may be concluded that LMC represents another
version of the principle of biological evolution (PBE) and hence is closely related
to or is an alternative expression of Statements 14.13 and 14.14.

14.4 Evolution as a Triadic Relation

I think evolution and emergence are closely related. Emergence may be defined
simply as the appearance (over varying time scales) of the observable C from the
interaction between at least two material entities, say, A and B, none of which can
exhibit C individually, because C results from a unique mechanism, M, of
interactions between A and B:

M

A+B ! C (14.17)