Darwin’s great idea was that human beings were naturally selected by evolution over millions of years, rather than always being as we are now. This evolution was based on three features of life:
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 the lineage.
Evolution is then an iterative process that explores patterns to select those that survive, not the manufacture of a product based on a blueprint. It was initially applied only to biological systems but it is now thought that any active system that chooses from variable results can evolve, including social, geophysical, and technical systems (Bejan, 2023), so it could be a universal principle like the second law of thermodynamics.
In this model, quantum systems provide all the features necessary to evolve. For example, a photon of light finds the best path to a destination by Darwinian evolution because there is:
1. Generation. The photon wave actively 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 lineage.
Hence, a photon cloud passing through both Young’s slits to hit a screen point is also an evolution, as one of many generated variants triggers a restart that selects how the photon is reborn. Note that the outcome seems accidental but some instance always finds the best path, just as in Darwinian evolution, species seem to survive by accident but that some do isn’t an accident, as life will find a way if there is one.
Matter then evolved from light as follows. By the law of all action, extreme light from the big bang tried every combination to eventually produce electrons, a new entity species. The electron survived by its stability, as it is constantly bombarded by competitors for its physical niche, just as new species face competition in a biological niche. Stability then drives the evolution of matter as survival drives the evolution of species, because the future comes from what survives.
The randomness of physical events described by quantum theory then allowed the evolution of matter. In contrast, it is pointless in a clockwork universe, as it introduces errors in the machine. Why build 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 doesn’t play dice with the universe, is that a supreme power, divine or scientific, has full control, but what if it gave that away? 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 not a cause. Both views are revolutionary, but that doesn’t make them wrong.
Evolution is a process not a production line, so matter is just finding what survives, as life does. There are no divine shortcuts, as each step must cause the next without missing links, so matter had to evolve from light, and stars had to die to create atoms like carbon that life needs. The same features, of generation, variation, and selection, explain matter and life, so behind the evolution of life lies a grander evolution, that of matter.
If the earth is a freakish accident, we may be alone in the universe, but if it is a natural evolution, that is unlikely. Even if life is so far limited to our earth, the grand evolution behind it is ongoing, as stars still evolve matter to this day. The foundation for life was laid long ago, so in a big universe it will occur because it can, as our earth shows. And life can produce conscious beings like us, so eventually the same will occur elsewhere, if it hasn’t already.