From archebiosis to evolution of organisms and informational systems

Abstract

Laws of evolution seem to be relevant not only for biological domains, but for informational systems. This paper provides a sketch of a comparison of two systems — that of homeostatic systems, and that of language evolution. We argue that the patterns of evolution of functions are hierarchically organized according to four main levels: I — the primary level: a cell in biology, a phoneme in language; II — functional units: a nephron, a morpheme; III — organs: a kidney (a lung, a heart, etc.), a word; IV — systems: physico-chemical constancy, a sentence or a phrase. There is a set of restrictions for each domain: the linguistic changes have not occurred in all languages, in many cases they are still underway, there are ‘old’ and ‘young’ languages, etc. Such comparisons appear to be relevant and can be applied to objects as far removed as these. This allows us to speak of certain evolutionary universals.