The accepted biological viewpoint of evolution is one in which all life forms are the result of the expression of genes (segments of DNA), which have been modified and selected by the environment (Crick, 1994). Genes contain information on how to build an organism and the environment, internal and external, fine-tunes the outcomes. This process of “natural selection”, favours some genes over others and organisms change, or evolve, in response to this test of their “fitness”. Fitness in this context relates to reproductive fitness. Is the changed life form not only better suited to the existing environment, but can it reproduce and produce fertile offspring which will pass on the modified genes to future generations?
In order to be completely convincing, the above viewpoint requires some further explanation regarding the source of the information carried by the genes. The generally accepted explanation relates to the particular arrangement of four different chemical bases (codons) in the DNA chain. The arrangement of these codons in turn determines the selection and arrangement of amino acids in the production of proteins (flesh) and hence the physical plan of each living organism. But what determines the specific arrangement of these chemical bases which ultimately codes for a particular organism?
Even if the process of natural selection controls the ongoing changes to the arrangement of these codons, something other than chance has to start the process in the beginning. Chance alone tends towards chaos and an outworking of the second law of thermodynamics whereby systems tend to devolve rather than evolve. It is generally accepted in science that there have to be “locations” where this thermodynamic law is overcome by an organising force which reverses the general trend towards chaos. Therefore for evolution to be a workable hypothesis it appears to require an organising force at the most basic level.
The writer suggests that DNA acts as a quantum level receiver able to selectively tune in to the quantum information provided from a range of other sources including other life forms. The quantum wave function of any object contains all the information there is to know about that object, regardless of whether it is living or non-living. Our universe is saturated with quantum level information from other galaxies and planetary systems, including our own solar system. Quantum waves from different sources are able to synchronise and exchange information across the entire universe almost instantaneously. Since there is almost unlimited potential within these quantum waves, there is almost unlimited potential for life forms suited to any different physical conditions existing at the classical level. It may be worth noting that this scenario offers a set of alternative outcomes at the classical level which are still subject to Neo-Darwinian evolutionary pressures (natural selection).
Since at the quantum level time is symmetrical and past and present have no meaning, one of the major differences between the quantum level (the source of information) and the classical level (the outworking of this information), is that the classical outworking has to have a timely purpose or intent. For example, there would be little purpose in providing information for aerobic respiration until the oxygen levels in the Earth’s atmosphere had reached useful levels. The earth’s earliest atmosphere contained very small quantities of oxygen and anaerobic respiration was the norm millions of years ago.
It follows that the quantum information supplied to the DNA of living organisms must cater for a timely purpose, whilst remaining entirely dependent on selection pressures present at the classical level before it may manifest itself in some observable aspect of a particular organism. However, the information itself must already be in existence before the “right” environmental conditions arise. This could pose a serious challenge to our current concepts of evolution in which natural selection alone modifies DNA on the basis of fitness for survival and reproduction.
