Evolution

Thank you for the holiday greetings and the best to you and your Family. You stated, “I would contend, however, that it [constructal law] does not seem to be as significant as you say it is after reading up on it and watching videos of Bejan explain the law as well as impressions from students learning it.”That is the debate, I simply take issue with your “not significant” position on the constructal law (aka the law of evolution). The constructal law is part of Thermodynamics, a “first principle” law, simple and profound. The constructal law transcends the classical narrow view of biological “Natural selection” etc., presenting a unification principle of evolution throughout the universe both animate and inanimate. Thank you for the YouTube Duke University overviews (“Explain”, “Examples” and “Student Impressions”) of the constructal law. I find university video productions a bit boring, the following presentation adds depth with a bit of Hollywood spin to the subject: This law is new (1996) and generating a lot of excitement today over the entire range of science—from geophysics and biology to social dynamics and engineering. The interest is fueled by two trends:1) A voluminous body of knowledge has accumulated, and it shows that features our minds perceive as design (configurations, rhythms, scaling rules) are present in “ALL” flow systems in nature represented by the empirical repeatable vascularized, treelike patterns found throughout the living universe; similar to the hierarchical branching patterns found in the flow of traffic, social organization, communication, markets, and other human activities.2) Design phenomena are not covered by the existing known laws of physics.The empirical knowledge has far outpaced the theoretical framework that is needed to support it. This kind of mismatch is the ammunition and trigger for scientific revolution. Many scientists have offered their own insights into the riddle of design in nature. To varying degrees these include fractal geometry, complexity theory, Fibonacci's patterns, network theories, chaos theory, power laws (allometric scaling rules), and other “general social and economic models” and optimality statements (minimum, maximum, optimum), as well as Charles Darwin's seminal work and D'Arcy Thompson's magisterial volume “On Growth and Form,” etc.To have a discussion about evolution advoiding this profound design relation in the symmetry of vascularized, treelike patterns throughout the universe is like jumping in the middle of a movie clueless of the characters. Then, you start the story by saying, “Evolution - the process through which organisms change over time.” What's up with this change? Is this change reversible? If not, why? When you start with the laws of thermodynamics you immediately establish the “arrow of time,” geometric irreversibility, etc., during the morphing of configuration found in all flow systems. Such morphing defines life in physics terms, and includes all living-system phenomena. It also reframes the view that life on Earth began with the rise of primitive “organisms” some 3.5 billion years ago. Life began much earlier, when the first inanimate systems, such as currents of solar heat and wind, the flow of fluid dynamics, acquiring the vascular evolving designs needed for life. You don't need advanced mathematics to grasp this simple and profound relationship. The simplicity is there as my Friend Pro stated, “…but at the same time it seems as if I'd been learning about it [constructal law] all along.” And on that note, you too, as I did; experienced a moment of discovery.