The Law on Increasing Functional Information - LIFI - already had a foundation in 1998

In 2023, the Law of Functional Information Augmentation (LIFI), proposed by the American astrobiologist Michael L. Wong (@miquai.bsky.social), the American astrobiologist and geologist Robert Hazen (Carnegie Science), and collaborators, was presented to the scientific world. Upon reading about this work, I perceived a strong connection to the concept of Systemic Functional Level, which I documented in a book in 1998.

As a physicist, I saw there the confirmation written in my book *Systems and the Origin of Life* - https://argosarrudapinto.blogspot.com/2019/08/sistemas-e-origem-da-vida_29.html - that complexity does not arise from nothing.

The Systemic Functional Level (SFL) would be 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 stored, transmitted, and processed by it, with this having 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.*

LIFI proposes that systems evolve towards greater functional information. But here's the "trick" I've been advocating: Functional Information (FI) does not grow in a vacuum. It is dependent on what I call the Systemic Functional Level (SFL). If it grows, Functional Information also grows. Read the full article here:

[https://argosarrudapinto.blogspot.com/2025/08/a-lei-do-aumento-da-informacao.html]

The New Phase System (NFS) is the real integration between matter, energy, and information.

Why does this matter, for example, for the Origin of Life?

We often try to explain life only through biology, but the prebiotic transition is a Complex Systems Physics event: as another significant example: T-Rex vs. Human. The dinosaur possessed tons of mass and energy, but an NFS limited by information processing. The human brain, weighing only 1.3 kg and consuming the energy of a 20W LED light bulb, achieves a superior NFS because the efficiency of functional information "leverages" the system to a new phase transition, a higher level.

Practical Experience:

Throughout my career, I've realized that in any system—from a single cell to a company with new computers—the increase in information only generates evolution if the material and energetic support allows for raising the Functional Level. Without the correct substrate, the "law" has nowhere to operate.

I'm sharing a detailed article on how the Systemic Functional Level anticipated and complements this new vision of science.

Hashtags:

#ComplexSystems, #OriginOfLife, #Physics, #Astrobiology, #LIFI, #SystemicFunctionalLevel, #CarnegieScience, #Astrobiology, #OriginOfLife, #LifeAtCarnegie, #ComplexSystems, #LIFI #SystemicFunctionalLevel, #ComplexSystems, #Astrobiology, #InformationTheory.

Note

(*) See more details with examples in my text "The Growth of the Systemic Functional Level through the history of life": https://argosarrudapinto.blogspot.com/2026/02/o-crescimento-do-nivel-funcional.html.