REVIEW article
Front. Complex Syst.
Sec. Complex Systems Theory
This article is part of the Research TopicTheories of EmergenceView all articles
On the evolutionary dynamics of complexity and consciousness
Provisionally accepted
- Cornell University, Ithaca, United States
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The perennial debate about the possible directionality of evolution, as indicated by the apparent increase in the complexity of living systems over time, has recently witnessed renewed arguments in favor of the growth of complexity being "entropic," that is, consistent with the growth of entropy as it is construed in thermodynamics (e.g., Jeffery et al., 2019). Here, I offer a brief review of formal treatments of complexity and of evolutionary mechanisms that are capable of causing it to increase. I then propose that both the evolutionary emergence and the individual learning of basic phenomenal awareness, a type of consciousness, are characterized by the same time-asymmetrical dynamics. Like life itself, biological consciousness arguably evolves towards greater complexity, and for the same reasons.
Keywords: Complexity, Consciousness, evolutionary dynamics, entropy, Learning, Phenomenal awareness, biological consciousness, Dynamical Emergence Theory
Received: 01 Aug 2025; Accepted: 29 Nov 2025.
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* Correspondence: Shimon Edelman
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