Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Évolutive, Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, CNRS, UMR 5558, 43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, 69622 Villeurbanne, France
André Ariew
Department of Philosophy, University of Missouri, 438 Strickland Hall, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
Pierrick Bourrat
Department of Philosophy, Macquarie University, Balaclava Road, North Ryde, NSW 2109, Australia
María Ferreira Ruiz
Department of Philosophy, University of Bielefeld, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany
Thomas Heams
INRAE, Domaine de Vilvert Bâtiment 211, 78352 Jouy-en-Josas, France
Philippe Huneman
Institut d’Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques, CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), Université Paris I Sorbonne, 13 Rue du Four, 75006 Paris, France
Sandeep Krishna
Simons Centre for the Study of Living Machines, National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bangalore 560065, India
Michael Lachmann
Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA
Nicolas Lartillot
Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Évolutive, Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, CNRS, UMR 5558, 43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, 69622 Villeurbanne, France
Louis Le Sergeant d'Hendecourt
Centre de St-Jérôme, Laboratoire de Physique des Interactions Ioniques et Moléculaires, Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, UMR 7345, 13013 Marseille, France
Christophe Malaterre
Centre de Recherche Interuniversitaire sur la Science et la Technologie (CIRST), Département de Philosophie, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), 455 Boulevard René-Lévesque Est, Montréal, QC H3C 3P8, Canada
Philippe Nghe
Laboratoire Biophysique et Evolution, CNRS UMR Chimie Biologie Innovation 8231, ESPCI Paris, Université PSL, 10 Rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris, France
Etienne Rajon
Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Évolutive, Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, CNRS, UMR 5558, 43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, 69622 Villeurbanne, France
Olivier Rivoire
Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Biology (CIRB), Collège de France, CNRS, INSERM, Université PSL, 75005 Paris, France
Matteo Smerlak
Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Inselstrasse 22, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
Zorana Zeravcic
Gulliver Lab, CNRS UMR 7083, ESPCI Paris, PSL University, 75005 Paris, France
Natural selection is commonly seen not just as an explanation for adaptive evolution, but as the inevitable consequence of “heritable variation in fitness among individuals”. Although it remains embedded in biological concepts, such a formalisation makes it tempting to explore whether this precondition may be met not only in life as we know it, but also in other physical systems. This would imply that these systems are subject to natural selection and may perhaps be investigated in a biological framework, where properties are typically examined in light of their putative functions. Here we relate the major questions that were debated during a three-day workshop devoted to discussing whether natural selection may take place in non-living physical systems. We start this report with a brief overview of research fields dealing with “life-like” or “proto-biotic” systems, where mimicking evolution by natural selection in test tubes stands as a major objective. We contend the challenge may be as much conceptual as technical. Taking the problem from a physical angle, we then discuss the framework of dissipative structures. Although life is viewed in this context as a particular case within a larger ensemble of physical phenomena, this approach does not provide general principles from which natural selection can be derived. Turning back to evolutionary biology, we ask to what extent the most general formulations of the necessary conditions or signatures of natural selection may be applicable beyond biology. In our view, such a cross-disciplinary jump is impeded by reliance on individuality as a central yet implicit and loosely defined concept. Overall, these discussions thus lead us to conjecture that understanding, in physico-chemical terms, how individuality emerges and how it can be recognised, will be essential in the search for instances of evolution by natural selection outside of living systems.
