title: General theory of evolution.
abstract: The biological, neural, cultural and technical evolutions and their phenomena have been explored, and on the basis of our findings the formation of a general theory of evolution has been undertaken. In each of the systems studied, the presence of structural building units, excitable structures and an energy-flow going through the system can be observed. Under the organizing effect of this energy-flow, the spontaneous generation of the replicative information begins and the structures of the system establish functional relations with each other. It can be demonstrated that the evolution of structures has a replicative character. The evolution goes through a phase of non-identical replication, and reaches the phase of identical replication. The parts of the system become separated, that is, compartments develop within it. The replicative information becomes compartmentalized and it converges. As a consequence of the convergence, the compartments compose new structural units which is tantamount to the development of new evolutional levels. The direction of evolution is determined by the growth of replicative information, and this process is concluded when the total system becomes one replicative unit. In the last part of the paper a few of the basic principles of evolution concerning matter, energy and information are drawn up.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003468:Cultural Evolution; D006801:Humans; D013598:Systems Theory; D013672:Technology; D013816:Thermodynamics