The "law of increasing functional information" says evolution in all its forms inevitably leads to more patterning, diversity, and complexity in natural complex systems. Biological and mineral systems continually interact to influence each other's diversity, and life as we know it is the result of this
interaction.
These evolving systems appear to be conceptually equivalent in that they display three notable attributes:
1) They form from numerous components that have the potential to adopt combinatorially vast numbers of different configurations;
2) Processes exist that generate numerous different configurations; and
3) Configurations are preferentially selected based on function.
So, what functions? "We conjecture that selection based on static persistence, dynamic persistence, and novelty generation is a universal process that results in systems with
increased functional information." Fascinating!
