EVOLUTION AND HUMAN DESTINY 



haps suggest that "complexification" may be as much 

 one of the operating laws in the universe, governing 

 matter under certain special conditions, as degradation 

 is known to govern matter undergoing physico-chem- 

 ical reactions? In fact, increasing complexity may be a 

 phenomenon that could be mathematically derived 

 from similar considerations as are used to establish the 

 "Second Law" on the basis of statistical probability. 

 (If the statistical group is extremely large and the time 

 allowed great, the concept of a "probability of improb- 

 able situations" may have significance.) 



While the question of how the cells were so "clever" 

 as to integrate themselves so intelligently in the organ- 

 ism has frequently been asked (without serious expec- 

 tation of any answer) , one never hears of the query 

 about the "clever" molecules that have formed cells, 

 nor about the "clever" atoms that have formed mole- 

 cules. Are these things really so completely different 

 from one another, or are they perhaps just analogous 

 integrations on succeeding levels, that can be accounted 

 for on the basis of a general principle? 



Genetic theory as it stands at the present time surely 

 makes a great contribution in explaining the mech- 

 anism by means of which evolution has moved forward. 

 Yet it is not quite satisfactory in accounting for the 

 clear-cut direction in which the evolution of living 

 matter has proceeded. We shall return to these ques- 

 tions later in our discussion, but the reader might do 

 well to keep them in mind from this point on. 



52 



