The evolution of brain and mind: A non-equilibrium thermodynamics approach

Israel Grande-García

Resumen


The evolution of human brain and mind presupposes the study of the evolution of organic life-forms and the study of the phylogeny of preconscious animal cognition. Thus this paper takes as its basis the framework of non-equilibrium thermodynamics for biological systems. According to this viewpoint, biological systems seem to violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics: organisms keep themselves alive in their highly organized states because they absorb energy from the environment and process it to produce a state of low entropy within themselves. So it can be said that biological systems are feed of or attract negative entropy in order to compensate for the increase of entropy they create when living (i.e., life is negentropic). The paper then traces the phylogeny of brain and mind from the complexity of negentropic processes in biological systems (metabolism, thermo-regulation, irritability, sensation, perception) to non-human animal mind and human consciousness.

 

Key words: Non-equilibrium thermodynamics, evolution, entropy, negentropy, brain evolution, cephalization, encephalization, language, cultural psychology, consciousness.

 


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