This highly interdisciplinary book discusses the phenomenon of life, including its origin and evolution, against the background of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and information theory. Among the central themes is the seeming contradiction between the second law of thermodynamics and the high degree of order and complexity produced by living systems. As the author shows, this paradox has its resolution in the information content of the Gibbs free energy that enters the biosphere from outside sources. Another focus of the book is the role of information in human cultural evolution, which is also discussed with the origin of human linguistic abilities. One of the final chapters addresses the merging of information technology and biotechnology into a new discipline — bioinformation technology.
This third edition has been updated to reflect the latest scientific and technological advances. Professor Avery makes use of the perspectives of famous scholars such as Professor Noam Chomsky and Nobel Laureates John O'Keefe, May-Britt Moser and Edward Moser to cast light on the evolution of human languages. The mechanism of cell differentiation, and the rapid acceleration of information technology in the 21st century are also discussed.
With various research disciplines becoming increasingly interrelated today, Information Theory and Evolution provides nuance to the conversation between bioinformatics, information technology, and pertinent social-political issues. This book is a welcome voice in working on the future challenges that humanity will face as a result of scientific and technological progress.
Sample Chapter(s)
Preface
Chapter 1: PIONEERS OF EVOLUTIONARY THOUGHT
Contents:
- Pioneers of Evolutionary Thought
- Charles Darwin's Life and Work
- Molecular Biology and Evolution
- Statistical Mechanics and Information
- Information Flow in Biology
- Cultural Evolution and Information
- Information Technology
- Pathfinding
- The Evolution of Human Languages
- The Mechanism of Cell Differentiation
- Bio-Information Technology
- Looking Towards the Future
- Appendix A: Entropy And Information
- Appendix B: Biosemiotics
- Appendix C: Entropy And Economics
- Index
Readership: General readers interested in the intersection between information theory and evolution, undergraduates of physics and biology, researchers in bioinformatics.
"This marvelous book distills diverse knowledge streams into a single coherent scientific narrative explaining the immense diversity of life forms and, even more importantly, of human societies. Lightened by anecdotes and titbits of history, it tells how energy and entropy inexorably drive biological and social evolution from simplicity towards complexity. Through a much-needed gentle introduction to information theory and thermodynamics, success is related to knowledge generation and directing its flow. But global civilization — or what the author calls a human superorganism — may have succeeded too well and so imperiled its own survival. The recommended course corrections are just as important as the rest of the book."
Pervez Hoodbhoy
Professor of Physics
Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan
"Fascinating new primary sources bring John Scales Avery's book Information Theory and Evolution, in third edition. His book builds from Charles Darwin's studies, molecular biology, and thermodynamics. The third edition adds six chapters. Accelerating computation develops Wikipedia and Google effective search engines. A new chapter, The Evolution of Human Languages, comes from world-famous linguistic scientist, Noam Chomsky. He asserts that humans acquired their astonishing linguistic abilities quite suddenly, quite against Darwin. The last chapter, Looking Towards the Future, Avery points to serious problems, especially the threat of catastrophic climate change."
Prof Dudley Herschbach
Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, 1986
Harvard University, USA
John Scales Avery was born in 1933 in Lebanon, where his father was Professor of Anatomy at the American University of Beirut. He received his training in theoretical physics and theoretical chemistry at MIT, the University of Chicago and the University of London. He is the author of numerous books and articles, both on scientific topics and on broader social questions. In 1969 he founded the Journal of Bioenergetics and Biomembranes, and he served as its Managing Editor until 1980. He also served as Technical Advisor to the World Health Organization between 1988 and 1997, and as Chairman of the Danish National Group of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs between 1990 and the present. In 1995 Pugwash Conferences, as an organization, shared the Nobel Peace Prize with its president, Sir Joseph Rotblat. Between 2004 and 2014, Dr Avery served as Chairman of the Danish Peace Academy.
Dr Avery is noted for his books and research papers in quantum chemistry, thermodynamics, evolution, and history of science. His 2003 book Information Theory and Evolution set forth the view that the phenomenon of life, including its origin, evolution, as well as human cultural evolution, has its background situated in the fields of thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and information theory. Avery is a Foreign Member of the Royal Danish Society of Sciences and Letters, a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science, and recipiant of the Heyrovsky Medal of the Czech Academy of Science. He is also a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and the Royal Institution of Great Britain. He is a Fellow of the Learning Development Institute, and currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Nuclear Abolition Forum, the Advisory Board of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. He is a Member of the Transcend Network for Peace and Development and Associate of the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research, and is the author of more than 30 books and 200 articles.
