The Theory of the Systemic Functional Level (SFLT) and its consequence, the Law of Functional Information Increase (LIFI)

Argos Arruda Pinto

São Paulo, Brazil

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Abstract

I argue that the new Law of Functional Information Increase, proposed by Michael L. Wong, Robert Hazen, and collaborators, belongs to a theory I developed called the Law of the Systemic Functional Level, because information needs matter and energy to be generated, stored, transmitted, and processed. The Law of Functional Information Increase is the effect; the Systemic Functional Level is the cause. The universe tends to organize systems where matter and energy are shaped by information to ensure persistence. The Systemic Functional Level is a measure or degree of a system's functioning in terms of increasing complexity, given by the combination of matter, energy, and information. The amount of information generated, stored, transmitted, and processed by the system has a greater "weight" than the other two "variables". For example, we have less mass than a lion, we expend less energy, but the amount of information we process, due to our brain, causes the Systemic Functional Level (SFL) to be higher. Since we are dealing with complex systems, it is impossible to express all of this in formulas, but it would be something like mass x energy x information; and it may be different. If the SFL increases, the Functional Information also increases, being dependent on it.

Keywords: Law of Increase of Functional Information, LIFI, Michael L. Wong, Systemic Functional Level Theory, TLFS, Energy, Matter, Information

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1. Introduction

The Systemic Functional Level Theory posits that the evolution of any system—be it mineral, biological, or technological—is governed by a concomitant increase in its material, energetic, and informational base. According to this theory, Functional Information does not arise in isolation, but as a direct result of the elevation of the system's Functional Level.

2. The Axiom of the Systemic Trinity

For functionality to increase, the system must necessarily alter or optimize the relationship between three pillars:

Mass (M): the physical support or structural magnitude;

Energy (E): the potential for connection, maintenance flow, or processing;

Information (I): the configuration, design, code, or specific symmetry that assigns purpose or utility to the other two.

Central postulate: Functional Information, expressed in the Law of Functional Information Increase (LIFI) (Wong, Michael L. et al.), is the manifestation of the organization of matter and energy at levels of increasing complexity. Without the modification of matter/energy, information cannot be stored or transmitted.

3. The Selection Mechanism for Function

LIFI proposes that nature selects by persistence and novelty. NFS explains that this selection occurs through the refinement of the structure:

Static persistence (e.g., diamond): the increase in NFS here is seen in the transition from isolated carbon atoms to a crystalline lattice. The spatial configuration (angles of 109.5°) maximizes binding energy and hardness, transforming structural information into physical utility.

Dynamic persistence (e.g., stars and cells): systems that maintain a constant flow. In the case of stars, the evolution of hydrogen and helium into heavy elements increases the number of protons and energy levels (electron shells), raising cosmic NFS.

Generation of novelty (e.g., biological membranes): in a membrane being internally destroyed by an element 'A', allowing the entry of an inhibitor 'B', due to any transformation in its structure without altering the NFS, it is demonstrated that it increases because the system adds this extra element of protection, mass, and a new recognition code, the information.

4. Comparison: LIFI vs. NFS

The table below summarizes how NFS acts as the engine behind LIFI observations:

LIFI: Universality

NFS: Occurs from the atom to software, as everything that exists occupies mass and processes energy.

LIFI: Enhanced Complexity

NFS: Is the result of compacting more functions into structures with specific spatial configurations.

LIFI: Purposeful Information

NFS: Information is only ‘functional’ if there is a physical structure (M) capable of performing work (E).

LIFI: Counterpoint to Entropy

NFS: NFS is a ‘local accumulator of order’, using external energy to organize matter and reduce informational disorder.

5. The Singularity of the Triclinic System (the turquoise example)

We can use turquoise to illustrate the increase in information through symmetry breaking. In the triclinic system of this rock (a ≠ b ≠ c, edge lengths and angles between atoms different from 90°), the ‘low level of symmetry’ paradoxically requires a greater amount of specific information to describe the structure than a simple cubic system. This proves that mineral evolution is not just a mixing of atoms, but a refinement but a refinement of ‘positional information’ and bonding.

Final Synthesis

The Law of Functional Information Enhancement is the effect; the Systemic Functional Level is the cause. The universe tends to organize systems where matter and energy are shaped by information to ensure persistence. Carbon compounds are the “sparks of life” because they possess the versatility necessary to achieve very high systemic functional levels in reactions and structural compositions, allowing the transition from chemistry to biology.

Data, Materials, and Software Availability

There are no data underlying this work.

Competing interests: The author declares no competing interest.

Reference

Wong, Michael L. et al. "On the roles of function and selection in evolving systems". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, v. 120, n. 43, e2310223120, 2023.

A força dos sentimentos e emoções na perpetuação dos humanos na Terra

Imagine the hunter-gatherer era, hundreds of thousands of years ago. There was no language, no writing, and perhaps the only form of human communication was through gestures and cries.

Babies were born and immediately protected by their mothers, while men protected them from members of their own groups, animals, rain, etc. No one knew the responsibility of being a parent to something so fragile, as they didn't know who or what generated them; they only understood that a baby would be born, as the woman's belly grew in a pattern similar to that of all women, but there were feelings, care, etc., which meant that the little ones would be protected and their lives preserved.

Part of the instinct to preserve the lives of the little ones was replaced by the previously scarce intelligence of their ancestors. Mothers breastfed instinctively, but they also learned, for example, that the crying of newborns was a sign of this need.

There are many unrecorded examples, which demonstrate the complexity of the behaviors necessary for the survival and well-being of children who are completely incapable of living alone in this world until they become masters of their own lives.

We are in Anthropology, a discipline in which it is relatively easy to deduce, think, etc. about how humans solve problems, invent solutions to embarrassing situations, etc. And it is precisely here, at the beginning of the human journey on Earth, that I can present to you, the reader, an idealized and surreal experience, without wanting to convince you of something that, if it were today, could be more complicated.

Remove all the feelings and emotions related to the behaviors of men and women in relation to the care of babies, and the human species would not exist on the planet today.

You would break the main link between them, and parents would abandon their children; there would be no one to take care of them, and that's it!

Feelings and emotions were present in animals older than humans, especially in mammals. Throughout history, as complexity increased in living beings, certain behaviors were selected by evolution. Following an arrow of increasing complexity*, from the first multicellular animals to mammals, these selected behaviors belonged to those who did not abandon their offspring and cared for their young.

Note 

(*) See “The Growth of the Systemic Functional Level throughout the history of life”. Argos Arruda Pinto. https://argosarrudapinto.blogspot.com/2026/02/o-crescimento-do-nivel-funcional.html.

A força dos sentimentos e emoções na perpetuação dos humanos na Terra

Imagine a época dos caçadores coletores há dezenas ou centenas de milhares de anos atrás. Não havia a linguagem, a escrita, e talvez o modo de comunicação dos humanos eram os gestos e gritos. 

Os bebês nasciam e imediatamente eram protegidos pelas mães enquanto os homens os protegiam contra os próprios integrantes dos seus grupos, de animais, chuva etc. Ninguém sabia da responsabilidade de ser pai com alguém tão frágil porque não sabiam quem ou o que os geravam, apenas entendiam que algum nasceria pelo fato da barriga de uma mulher crescia em um padrão aproximado e comum a cada uma delas, mas havia sentimentos, zelo etc., ou seja, os pequeninos estariam protegidos e teriam suas vidas preservadas.  

Parte do instinto de preservação da vida aos pequenos era substituída pela inteligência outrora escassa de seus antepassados. As mães os amamentavam por instinto, mas também aprendiam, por exemplo, que os choros dos recém-nascidos era um indício dessa necessidade. 

Existem muitos exemplos os quais não ficaram registrados em nada a indicar a complexidade de comportamentos para a sobrevivência e cuidados ao bem-estar de crianças totalmente inaptas a viverem neste mundo sozinhas até serem donas das próprias vidas. 

Estamos na Antropologia, uma disciplina na qual é relativamente fácil deduzir, pensar etc., em como os humanos resolvem problemas, inventam saídas para situações embaraçosas etc. E é justamente aqui, no início da jornada do ser humano na Terra que posso apresentar a você leitor uma experiência idealizada, surreal, sem querer te convencer de algo que, se fosse hoje, talvez seria mais complicado. 

Retire todos os sentimentos e emoções relativos aos comportamentos dos homens e mulheres a respeito de todos os cuidados aos bebês e a espécie humana não estaria até hoje no planeta. 

Você quebraria o elo principal entre eles e os pais abandonariam os filhos, não haveria quem cuidasse deles e pronto! 

Sentimentos e emoções estavam presentes em animais mais antigos que os humanos, principalmente nos mamíferos. Na história da vida, conforme a complexidade crescia em seres vivos, comportamentos eram selecionados pela evolução. No caso de uma seta de complexidade crescente*, desde os primeiros animais multicelulares até aos mamíferos, esses comportamentos selecionados pertenciam àqueles que não abandonaram as proles e cuidavam dos filhotes.

Nota

(*) Veja “O crescimento do Nível Funcional Sistêmico através da história da vida”. Argos Arruda Pinto. https://argosarrudapinto.blogspot.com/2026/02/o-crescimento-do-nivel-funcional.html.

Carbon compounds: the sparks of life - An interdisciplinary text

Note: In this text, I don't show you, the reader, formulas by which inorganic matter organized itself and the first living beings emerged—something like that is impossible due to the complexity of these beings—but I provide an introduction, a summary, through theories, concepts, and disciplines indispensable to the subject, topics that are rarely studied, or perhaps very rarely, in school curricula. This is the main reason why there is so much ignorance about how life truly began on the planet.

“The laws of Physics created subatomic particles and particles, atoms, molecules, carbon compounds, complex molecules, and prebiotic structures, leading to life.”

How did nature go from an atom to a cell?

This is one of the most frequent and difficult questions to answer. It appears alongside the questions “How did the universe and human beings arise?”

There is a highly interdisciplinary area called Abiogenesis dealing with this topic, but, as the title of the text indicates, I have focused on discussing carbon compounds. An initial argument, which I will call Factor 01, used for this purpose, is the very long time frame for the emergence of life, but I have never seen a second, powerful argument: the versatility and high reactivity of carbon compounds. It possesses unique chemical properties, allowing the formation of large and complex molecules, an essential prerequisite for the emergence of living systems. So, in addition to a time span inconceivable to our imagination, around 700/800 million years, 4.5 billion to 3.8 billion years in Earth's history, there is this other factor, which I call Factor 02. The characteristics of carbon that accelerated the formation and complexity of life are:

- Tetravalence: the carbon atom forms four covalent bonds with other atoms. This allows it to serve as a central connection point, bonding to four other elements and building complex three-dimensional structures;

- Catenation: Carbon has the rare ability to stably bond to other carbon atoms, forming long chains, rings, and branched structures. This allows the construction of vast and diverse "molecular skeletons," such as those found in sugars, lipids, proteins, and DNA;

- Varied Bonding: Carbon can form single, double, or triple bonds with other atoms, including itself and elements such as oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. The diversity of bonds increases the number of combinations and ensures the stability and functional variety of organic molecules;

- Intermediate Polarity: Its intermediate electronegativity allows the formation of stable covalent bonds, but these bonds can also be broken under biological conditions. The bonds are strong enough to maintain the structure, but weak enough to be broken and reformed during metabolism and replication. (NELSON; COX, 2019).

This capacity to build an immense number of stable and complex molecules was responsible for the emergence of biological structures such as DNA, for genetic information, and proteins, for structure and catalysis of reactions.

Therefore, the reactivity of carbon, manifested in its ability to form varied and stable bonds, was the chemical engine making chemical evolution possible, leading to the emergence of the first replicating systems and, finally, to life. And we must also consider the immense quantity of carbon compounds produced in the prebiotic phase of Earth, with a magnitude of hundreds of millions to billions of tons, indicated by realistic estimates taking into account three factors:

1 - Endogenous synthesis: experiments like the Miller-Urey experiment of 1952/53 demonstrated that electrical discharges and UV radiation in a reducing atmosphere can produce amino acids and sugars. Imagine this occurring on a global scale for hundreds of millions of years;

2 - Atmosphere and oceans: at the bottom of the oceans, the contact of magma with mineral-rich water creates chemical gradients, continuously synthesizing complex organic molecules;

3 - Hydrothermal vents and exogenous input from space: during the so-called "Late Heavy Bombardment," Earth was hit by millions of comets and meteorites containing carbonaceous chondrites. These bodies are rich in carbon and transported tons of ready-made organic molecules to our planet (URRY et al., 2022).

And how did these carbon compounds come together? Now, let's move on to the third factor, Factor 03.

We often get confused in problems, such as those in Physics or Mathematics, for example, which involve only one variable in simple systems. When two or more variables arise, the problem becomes impossible to solve. To illustrate a question from our daily lives, even ridiculous to mention here, but necessary, I asked several people and received answers in only one way, with only one factor: "Why do you brush your teeth?". Some answered "To clean and preserve my teeth" and others "To avoid bad breath". In fact, both answers are correct, and some found my statement strange. There were those who disagreed...

Thinking about the existence of more than one answer to a problem is very difficult for many people. They are used to a "yes" or "no", failing to mention any other factor between these two in problems with more than one variable, when two or more are necessary to understand the answer.

This is where complex systems with many variables come in, in which a small change in their initial conditions causes very large alterations in their evolution. Although there is an increase in the difficulty of understanding situations of this nature, there are, and therefore we open a parenthesis in relation to the observation made at the beginning of the text, theories, disciplines, and concepts that provide a broader view of the problems of the origin of life. These are the concepts of systems theory, complexity theory, cybernetics, emergence, self-organization of matter, autopoiesis, etc.

Below is a list of many of them, simplifying the subject, because otherwise we would need an entire book. To facilitate understanding of some topics, I have included notes and explanations in brackets:

“System:

The definition of a system may vary in some aspects from author to author. But what all definitions have in common is the basic fact that a system is a set of elements linked together by some form of interdependence. Thus, I can list here other aspects, some more similar, others not:

1 - The elements interact and are interdependent, forming a whole with an objective and performing a specific function (OLIVEIRA, 2016).

2 - The elements interact and are interdependent, but each is considered a system and, acting together, produce a behavior that would not be achieved if these elements acted separately. If, in a set, the relationships between the elements and the behavior of the whole are the focus of attention, this can be considered a system (ALVAREZ, 1990, p. 17).

3 - The elements are not related, constituting a unitary or complex whole.

Note: In my opinion, the definition of whether a system is considered a system depends on how we study it. For example, a rock can be considered a system as long as we study the organization and interaction between the molecules that compose it.

Note on complex systems: a system is complex when, according to Whitesides and Ismagilov (1999), its evolution is very sensitive to initial conditions, the number of independent interacting components is large, and when there are several paths through which the system's evolution can proceed.

System in thermodynamic equilibrium:

It is a system that is simultaneously in thermal, chemical, and mechanical equilibrium, without any measurable macroscopic change in the presence of external disturbances.

Systems in metastable equilibrium:

It is one in which changes occur in the presence of disturbances or forces. These changes are called fluctuations of the system relative to the equilibrium state. They are divided into two groups:

1 - System near equilibrium:

A system in which fluctuations, as they decrease in size over time, cause the system's response to a change to be directly proportional to its intensity.

2 - System far from equilibrium:

A system in which, as fluctuations become increasingly larger, the system tends to evolve towards one possible state among several, making it impossible to predict how this evolution will occur.

Homeostasis:

The property of living beings, or any other open system, to maintain internal variations within certain limits, regulating and maintaining stability without self-destruction through regulatory mechanisms. This is fundamental for any living being.

Synergy:

A multidisciplinary area created by the German physicist Hermann Haken (1927-2024) that studies how patterns can form in open systems far from equilibrium in nature, or how the elements of a system build functional or spatiotemporal structures. Systems far from equilibrium are those where there is a continuous input and output of matter/energy.

Complex Adaptive Systems - CAS:

These are systems in which internal agents are able to alter their information processing functions so that the whole adapts to the external environment: biotic systems.

Autopoietic system [autopoiesis]:

NASA's definition of life: it is a system that continuously rebuilds and reproduces itself, according to Darwin's Theory of Evolution.

Emergent properties:

Properties that arise as a result of the combined action of elements of a system that, individually, would not be able to generate such properties. This expression refers to behaviors and not to entities of a physical, chemical, or any other nature. Furthermore, due to the emergence of previously impossible behaviors, it becomes impossible to predict the behavior of the whole. In a general sense, "the whole is different from the sum of its parts." [The whole can be greater than the sum of its parts in terms of functioning, emergent materialism in the emergence of life, differentiating it from the general notion that the whole is not reduced to its individual parts, reductionism, one of the main arguments against the emergence of life in a materialistic way.]

Metaequilibrium:

Condition of a system in which behavior is organized due to the emergent properties of its elements that are in disequilibrium.

Self-organized criticality:

Capacity or property of a system to direct itself towards a stable state, regardless of initial conditions and disturbances exerted upon it.

Feedback:

Capacity of a system, or its elements, in which part of the output energy returns to control its behavior. There can be positive feedback, where behavior is amplified, negative feedback, where behavior is diminished, and stable feedback, where the system is self-regulated.

[...]

Self-organization:

Organization that arises within a system when it is sufficiently far from a state of thermodynamic equilibrium, having been displaced through the exchange of energy and/or matter with the environment, but not of information. **(PINTO, 2013).**

Note on emergence and self-organization: emergent properties and self-organization are deeply linked. Although they are distinct concepts, they describe two sides of the same coin in the study of complex systems. In simpler terms: self-organization is the process (the "how" it happens) and emergent properties are the result (the "what" arises).

Chemistry is divided into two branches: organic and inorganic, such is the influence of carbon compounds on the history of the emergence of life and on everything that has occurred to date, although organic chemistry also includes studies on plastics, medicines, fuels, etc.

Life is regulation and control. As an example, consider a blood count: blood bags with numbers within or outside an ideal range, considered normal for an individual. These numbers are variables of the organism. If any of them are outside this range, a doctor will take measures, prescribe medications, vitamins, or other tests, so that this substance, ion, molecule, etc., returns to the normal range. This is clearly homeostasis. It is so powerful that the intervention of a doctor, being something external to the system, to the body of an individual, is also part of homeostasis, a "greater" homeostasis, because it is now a regulator with intelligence, formed and trained for such a condition.

As carbon compounds began to form complex molecules, clusters, and prebiotic structures, the properties described above became present—something impossible to achieve with the laws of Physics and Chemistry separately. Only in complex systems with many components is the emergence of unpredictable behavior observed, unlike when, for example, you measure the initial and final position of an object on a straight line and divide by the time interval it takes to travel that distance to obtain its average speed. Just one object, one component!

Life did not arise due to any supernatural influence. For emergent materialism, the transition from "non-living" to "living" is not a miracle, but a process of "phase transition." Just as the fluidity of water emerges from the interaction of water molecules, which individually are not "fluid," life emerges from the interaction of complex chemical cycles. Another example: characteristics such as reproduction, adaptation, and information processing are properties of the complete system, not of a specific molecule.

So, when you hear or talk to someone about the emergence of life through emergentist materialism, think about these three indispensable factors for such a subject, Factors 01, 02, and 03, not necessarily in this order in the text:

1 - Time.

2 - The versatility and high reactivity of carbon compounds.

3 - The unusual properties when studying complex systems.

And to delve even deeper into this subject, research the following topics and disciplines:

1 - Prebiotic Chemistry and Biochemistry;

2 - Geology and Geochemistry;

3 - Thermodynamics of Non-Equilibrium Systems;

4 - Molecular Biology and Cytology.

And the emergence of a multicellular being from a single cell? Cells grouped together, and time and the properties of the aforementioned topics and sciences also came into play.

Notes

(*) Structures selected for their functions, as in the case of mitochondria, which were not yet organelles but bacteria, to later be engulfed by protocells, providing energy through oxygen and feeding on nutrients within the protocells, the two living symbiotically, according to the Law of Functional Information Increase (Wong et al., 2023) and the Law of Functional Information Increase as a consequence of the Systemic Functional Level (PINTO, 2025).

(**) (December 27, 2025) - Want a summary of the systemic view above in the formation of living beings? See:

"Feedback allows homeostasis, interaction generates emergence via self-organization, and autopoiesis ensures the continuity of the system, all within the framework of complexity."

References

ALVAREZ, Maria Esmeralda Ballestero. Organization, systems and methods. São Paulo: McGraw-Hill, 1990.

NELSON, David L.; COX, Michael M. Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry. 7th ed. Porto Alegre: Artmed, 2019.

OLIVEIRA, Djalma de Pinho Rebouças de. Management information systems: strategies, tactics, operations. 16th ed. São Paulo: Atlas, 2016.

PINTO, Argos Arruda. Concepts for this blog - always under construction: system. Systems, chaos, complexity and self-organization of matter, [S. l.], Dec. 29, 2013. Available at: https://sicacoauorma.blogspot.com/2013/12/conceitos-para-este-blog-sempre-em.html. Accessed on: 5 mar 2026.

PINTO, Argos Arruda. The Law of Increased Functional Information as a Consequence of the Systemic Functional Level. Argos' Blog. São Paulo, August 6, 2025. Available at: https://argosarrudapinto.blogspot.com/2025/08/a-lei-do-aumento-da-informacao.html. Accessed on: 5 mar 2026.

URRY, Lisa A. et al. Campbell Biology. 12th ed. Porto Alegre: Artmed, 2022.

WHITESIDES, George M.; ISMAGILOV, Rustem F. Complexity in Chemistry. Science, v. 284, n. 5411, p. 89-92, 1999. DOI: 10.1126/science.284.5411.89.

Wong, Michael L. et al. "On the roles of function and selection in evolving systems". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 120, no. 43, e2310223120, 2023.

The Dependence of Information on Matter and Energy

Information is a set of ordered and contextualized data that conveys one or more meanings, transforming raw data into useful and understandable knowledge.

The term "contextualized" provides meaning and is important in this definition. For example, the numerical sequence 19:30, with the colon, may be just data. But if you add the context of "arrival time," it becomes the information that "the flight will arrive at 19:30."

We know that one or more pieces of information need to be transmitted along a path to reach their destination. Think of a voice transmission via smartphone until another person understands what you are saying. I will present in numerical sequence something essential for this propagation, necessary for what is in the title of this text: matter and energy:

1. First, between the moment you think about what you are going to say and the moment the nerve impulses reach your vocal cords, many processes occur, such as the breakdown of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) molecules, matter, providing energy for cellular processes such as the entry and exit of sodium and potassium ions, matter, within neurons and then in axons, matter, being the nerve impulses. All this comes from the activity of millions of neurons that activate entire neural networks in different areas of the brain. For example, thinking about a car can activate neurons in the visual processing area (for the brand, color, etc.), in the memory area (to remember where you last saw it) and in the language area (for the name "car").

2. The impulses that reach the vocal cords, which are muscles, matter, make them vibrate, mechanical energy, and, activated by the air, matter, that comes out of the lungs, produce the sound of the voice. This sound is the sound energy of your voice, waves of compression and rarefaction of air, which reach the speaker, the material, of your smartphone.

Inside the speaker, these sound waves cause a small membrane, also made of matter, to vibrate. This vibration is a form of mechanical energy.

3. The vibration of the membrane in the microphone is converted into electrical signals, the electric current. This happens through a small transducer, which transforms the movement into a variation in electrical voltage.

Here we have electrons, matter, in a wire, also matter, with kinetic energy.

4. The electrical signal is processed and sent to the smartphone's transmitter. This transmitter converts the electrical energy of the electrons into electromagnetic waves (radio signals, "pure" energy), which travel through the air to a cell tower.

5. The cell tower, matter, and subsequently the second smartphone, receive the electromagnetic waves. The antenna, matter, in the second smartphone captures these waves and converts them back into electrical signals that reach the earpiece of the second smartphone. Inside the earpiece, a small speaker receives the electrical signal and makes its own membrane vibrate. This vibration generates sound waves that reach the second person's ear, allowing them to hear and understand the message.

From all that has been described, even without going into detail about the process of converting sound energy into nerve impulses in the ear, reaching the neurons of neural networks to be understood by the second person, so as not to tire you, the reader, energy, through material bodies and electromagnetic energy, changes form more than ten times and something is preserved: information.

Let's say you also want to transmit messages through television images, create your own program. You will have a microphone, radio transmission equipment, TV etc. Your smartphone will not necessarily be useful, but your listeners will be able to see you through them. More information will be conveyed in this system and listeners will begin to see various details that they did not see before: your face, clothes, scenery, your movements with papers on a table, etc. For this, there has been an increase in matter and energy with cameras involving electrical circuits, lenses, people filming, etc. It is very easy to imagine the superiority in complexity between just a voice transmission and one including images. These devices also transform photons of light from all around you into electrical impulses to be restored in the devices of millions or tens of millions of viewers' homes. It's a lot more information being transmitted within the system.

Honestly, I don't remember which book I came across that described voice transmission via radio, which I adapted for a smartphone. I invented the television myself. Perhaps it was from a book by the English artificial intelligence researcher, engineer, neurologist, sociologist, and psychiatrist, W. Ross Ashby (1903-1972), the title is Introduction to Cybernetics, but what matters most is the idea I memorized about how energy is transformed through material means while preserving the transmission and quality of information.

P.S.: In the two cases cited regarding information transmission, there was an increase in the systemic functional level, but not spontaneously, naturally.

Note:

(*) Systemic Functional Level

The Systemic Functional Level (SFL) would be a measure or degree of a system's functioning with respect to its complexity, given by the combination of matter, energy, and information. The amount of information generated, stored, transmitted, and processed by it has a greater "weight" than the other two "variables." For example, we have less mass than a lion, we expend less energy, but the amount of information processed by us, due to our brain, makes the SFL higher. Since we are dealing with complex systems, it is impossible to put all this into formulas, but it would be something like mass x energy x information; and it may be different.

A Teoria do Nível Funcional Sistêmico - NFS e a sua consequência, a Lei do Aumento da Informação Funcional - LIFI

Relembrando a definição de NFS: O Nível Funcional Sistêmico seria uma medida ou grau do funcionamento de um sistema no sentido do aumento da sua complexidade, dada pela combinação entre matéria, energia e informação, a quantidade de informação gerada, armazenada, transmitida e processada por ele, tendo esta um maior “peso” que as outras duas “variáveis” Por exemplo, temos menos massa que um leão, gastamos menos energia, mas a quantidade de informação processada por nós, devido ao nosso cérebro, faz com que o NFS seja maior. Como estamos lidando com sistemas complexos é impossível colocar tudo isto em fórmulas, mas seria algo como a massa x energia x informação; e pode ser diferente. Se ele cresce, a Informação Funcional também cresce, sendo dependente dele.

A Teoria do Nível Funcional Sistêmico - NFS postula que a evolução de qualquer sistema — seja ele mineral, biológico ou tecnológico — é governada por um aumento concomitante em sua base material, energética e informacional. Segundo esta teoria, a Informação Funcional não surge de forma isolada, mas como um resultado direto da elevação do NFS do sistema.

1. O Axioma da Trindade Sistêmica

Para que haja um aumento na funcionalidade, o sistema deve necessariamente alterar ou otimizar a relação entre três pilares:

Massa (M): o suporte físico ou a grandeza estrutural.

Energia (E): o potencial de ligação, o fluxo de manutenção ou o processamento.

Informação (I): a configuração específica, design, código ou simetria, que atribui propósito ou utilidade aos outros dois.

Postulado central: a Informação Funcional, expressa na Lei do Aumento da Informação Funcional - LIFI (Wong, Michael L. et al.), é a manifestação da organização da matéria e da energia em níveis de complexidade crescente. Sem a modificação da matéria/energia, a informação não pode ser armazenada nem transmitida.

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2. O Mecanismo de seleção para função

A LIFI propõe que a natureza seleciona por persistência e novidade. O NFS explica que essa seleção ocorre através do refinamento da estrutura:

• Persistência estática (ex: diamante): o aumento do NFS aqui é visto na transição de átomos de carbono isolados para uma rede cristalina. A configuração espacial (ângulos de 109,5°) maximiza a energia de ligação e a dureza, transformando informação estrutural em utilidade física.

• Persistência dinâmica (ex: estrelas e células): sistemas que mantêm um fluxo constante. No caso das estrelas, a evolução de Hidrogênio e Hélio para elementos pesados aumenta o número de prótons e níveis de energia (camadas eletrônicas), elevando o NFS cósmico.

• Geração de novidade (ex: membranas biológicas): em uma membrana sendo destruída internamente por um elemento 'A', permitindo a entrada de um inibidor 'B', devido a qualquer transformação em sua estrutura sem alterar o NFS, demonstra-se que ele aumenta porque o sistema adiciona esse elemento extra de proteção, massa, e um novo código de reconhecimento, a informação.

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3. Comparativo: LIFI vs. NFS

A tabela abaixo sintetiza como o NFS atua como o motor por trás das observações da LIFI:

Característica LIFI	Explicação pelo Nível Funcional Sistêmico (NFS)
Universalidade	Ocorre do átomo ao software, pois tudo o que existe ocupa massa e processa energia.
Aumento de complexidade	É o resultado da compactação de mais funções em estruturas com configurações espaciais específicas.
Informação com propósito	A informação só é ‘funcional’ se houver uma estrutura física (M) capaz de realizar o trabalho (E).
Contraponto à entropia	O NFS é um ‘acumulador local de ordem’, utilizando energia externa para organizar a matéria e reduzir a desordem informacional.

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4. A Singularidade do Sistema Triclínico (o exemplo da turquesa)

Podemos utilizar a turquesa para ilustrar o aumento da informação através da quebra de simetria. No sistema triclínico (a ≠ b ≠ c e ângulos diferentes de 90°), o ‘baixo nível de simetria’ exige, paradoxalmente, uma maior quantidade de informação específica para descrever a estrutura do que um sistema cúbico simples. Isso prova que a evolução mineral não é apenas um amontoado de átomos, mas um refinamento da ‘informação de posição’ e de ligação.

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Síntese final

A Lei do Aumento da Informação Funcional é o efeito; o Nível Funcional Sistêmico é a causa. O universo tende a organizar sistemas onde a matéria e a energia são moldadas pela informação para garantir a persistência. Os compostos de carbono (PINTO, 2025) são as "centelhas da vida" porque possuem a versatilidade necessária para atingir níveis funcionais sistêmicos altíssimos, permitindo a transição da química para a biologia.

Referências

PINTO, Argos Arruda. A dependência da informação com a matéria e a energia. São Paulo, out. 2025. Disponível em: https://argosarrudapinto.blogspot.com/2025/10/a-dependencia-da-informacao-com-materia.html. Acesso em: 1 mar. 2026.

PINTO, Argos Arruda. Compostos de carbono: as centelhas da vida - Um texto interdisciplinar. São Paulo, dez. 2025. Disponível em: https://argosarrudapinto.blogspot.com/2025/12/compostos-de-carbono-as-centelhas-da.html. Acesso em: 1 mar. 2026.

Wong, Michael L. et al. "On the roles of function and selection in evolving systems". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, v. 120, n. 43, e2310223120, 2023.