Throughout the history of life on earth, rare and complex innovations have periodically increased the efficiency with which abiotic free energy and biotic resources are converted to biomass and organismal diversity. Such macroevolutionary expansions have increased the total amount of abiotic free energy utilized by life and shaped the earth’s ecosystems. Meanwhile, Darwin’s theory of natural selection assumes a historical, worldwide state of effective resource limitation, which could not possibly be true if life evolved from one or a few original ancestors. In this paper, I analyze the self-contradiction in Darwin’s theory that comes from viewing the world and universe as effectively resource limited. I then extend evolutionary theory to include a second deterministic evolutionary force,natural reward. Natural reward operates on complex inventions produced by natural selection and is analogous to the reward for innovation in human economic systems. I hypothesize that natural reward, when combined with climate change and extinction, leads to the increased innovativeness, or what I call theadvancement, of life with time. I then discuss applications of the theory of natural reward to the evolution of evolvability, the apparent sudden appearance of new forms in the fossil record, and human economic evolution. I conclude that the theory of natural reward holds promise as an explanation for the historical advancement of life on earth.
