ABSTRACT
The understanding of evolution or directed change requires a clear understanding of the first and second laws of thermodynamics and their particular relation to each other. Recent advances in the theory of nonequilibrium thermodynamics have turned the Ludwig Boltzmann conception precisely on its head, providing the basis for obliterating the untenable dualistic ontology that has hung like a great weight around the neck of the modern scientific enterprise from its beginning. The conservation principle described by the first law expresses the time-translation symmetry of the laws of physics, and the second law likewise expresses a symmetry that governs all other physical laws, but in a completely unique and powerful way. The emergence of replicative ordering on Earth occurred extremely rapidly in geological time after the planet had cooled sufficiently to permit it. Learning is induced by problems, and from the physical point of view the global problem is the disequilibrium at the geo-cosmic interface .
