Information Engines: A Physical Model of Evolutionary Dynamics

An abstractive model based on the concept of information engines is proposed, which simulates evolution. The model, representing an elementary living system, comprises two interrelated stochastic optimization processes that maximize both its information content and energy-capturing performance. It is assumed that the system exploits stored information and selected mutations to optimize its capability to capture useful energy from the environment. It then consumes work to increase its information content further. Such a cross-amplification mechanism leads to the system's evolution towards higher levels of information processing capacity and increased energy-gaining efficiency, which is expressed as a persistent increase in its negentropy. Consequently, the simulated evolution process exhibits directionality, which also characterizes biological evolution, as other studies have observed. Moreover, the proposed model is compatible with the recently presented hypothesis of Life's Universal Architecture (LUA) that summarizes the structural requirements of a living system. The LUA hypothesis states that thermodynamic considerations impose the presence of information-processing and energy-gaining modules in all living systems.