Natural selection: a phase transition?

Information has two aspects: a quantity to be called 'extent' and a quality which may be termed 'content' since it deals with meaning. The latter originates via selective self-organization, which can be described also in quantitative physical terms. A prerequisite is the reproducibility of the informational substrate forming the basis of selection. This paper focuses on selection being the analogue of a physical phase transition. In Section 1 the criteria for phase transitions are formulated. Section 2 introduces the concept of information space and describes information as selected points or regions in this space. In Section 3 selection is analyzed in terms of the criteria for phase transitions, and in Section 4 the concept is confronted with experimental data. The conclusion is reached that information content is generated via selection, which can be described as a phase transition in information space. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.