Darwin’s great idea was that the human species was naturally selected by evolution over millions of years, rather than being built in a day as it is now. This evolution was based on three principles:
1. Generation. Species generate offspring that carry on their traits.
2. Variation. The traits of offspring vary, for example by mutation.
3. Selection. Offspring that survive are selected to continue their traits.
Evolution is then an iterative process that explores various biological patterns to select those that survive, not a manufacturing process that builds things based on a blueprint, as we do. It is now recognized as a universal principle that can apply to any freely active, flowing, and moving system, not just living systems, and it is distinct from the second law of thermodynamics (Bejan, 2023).
It is now proposed that quantum systems naturally evolve. For example, when a photon of light finds the best path to any destination, the photon evolves as a species does in Darwinian evolution, because there is:
1. Generation. The photon wave generates offspring by instantiation.
2. Variation. Photon instances vary in properties like location and direction.
3. Selection. A physical event selects one instance to restart the photon anew.
It follows that a photon cloud passing through both Young’s slits to hit a screen point is an evolution, as one of many generated variants triggers a restart that selects how the photon is reborn. In this evolution, the outcome seems accidental but some instance always finds the best path. Likewise in Darwinian evolution, species seem to survive by accident but that some will survive isn’t an accident, as life always finds a way, if there is one.
Quantum theory then allows matter to evolve. By the law of all action, extreme photons in the initial plasma explored every combination variant to eventually form electrons, a new entity species that isn’t light. The electron was then selected by its stability, as it is constantly bombarded by competitors for its physical niche just as a species faces competition in a biological niche. In the evolution of matter, stability replaces survival, so it drives the evolution of matter as survival drives the evolution of species. In both cases, what doesn’t last can’t affect the future.
Yet the randomness essential for evolution is pointless in a clockwork universe, as it introduces errors in the machine. What use is a clock that gives random times? Randomness is equally unhelpful in a designed universe, because it interferes with the divine plan. Einstein’s statement, that God does not play dice with the universe, is that a supreme power, whether divine or scientific, doesn’t have to give up control, but what if it chose to? It is not then God that plays dice with the universe but its participants by their choices. That matter evolved then needn’t deny theology or science, as for the first, evolution is the design, and for the second, matter is an effect rather than a cause. Both views are revolutionary, but that doesn’t mean they are wrong.
Evolution produces the future based on practice not theory, on what works not what is wanted. Matter is then finding what survives, just as life is. Why differentiate the evolution of matter from that of life if the same principles of generation, variation, and selection operate?
Evolution doesn’t allow divine shortcuts, as each state must lead to the next with no missing links. And every step requires effort, so stars had to die to create atoms like carbon upon which life depends. It follows that behind the evolution of life lies the grander evolution of matter. If so, even if life is restricted to our tiny earth, this grand evolution will continue throughout the universe, as stars still evolve matter to this day. The foundation has been laid so in a big universe, life will sometimes occur because it can, as our earth proves. And given life, there can be conscious beings, as our existence again proves, so even if we fail, something else will surely come along.
Was the universe then made for us, as a table is laid before a guest? Like Goldilocks, we sit before a meal just right for us but why? Crocodiles live in rivers finely-tuned for them but was that by design? To see it so is to reverse causality. Rivers existed before crocodiles, who then evolved to live as they allowed. Likewise, our universe existed before we did, and we evolved to fit it, so it wasn’t fine-tuned to us any more than crocodiles are fine-tuned to rivers. The Goldilocks effect is then like the cutlery at a table wondering why it fits the food, when it is no surprise. We forget that we are a product of a grand evolution, whether we know it or not.