IamI.Earth All papers
Two loops of gold light crossing around an Earth cut open to show DNA, a cell, an embryo and the planet.

Poster 路 Conference on Complex Systems 2026

The Two Engines of Evolutionary Transitions

A General Mechanism for Major Evolutionary Transitions Applied to the Planetary Scale

Nyx Redondo 路 Ronin Institute & IamI.Earth Foundation 路 CC BY 4.0

What drives major evolutionary transitions across every substrate and scale? Two coupled feedback loops: cooperation that breeds specialization and vulnerability, and growth that outpaces communication. The model runs from gene consolidation and endosymbiosis to multicellularity, colonies and human civilization, and makes testable predictions.

Read it

Open access 路 PreprintThe paperThe full paper, its model and its predictions, open on Zenodo. The link always opens its newest version.doi 10.5281/zenodo.19157559

Watch it

The poster, explained in 90 secondsThe poster, explained in 90 secondsIt plays on the poster's page, with its image credits.

See it

Poster 166 at CCS 2026Poster 166 at CCS 2026The poster's page: the two engines drawn, its film and Earth Model.
The Two Engines on one pageThe Two Engines on one pageBoth loops, the frontier and the eight stages, every word from the paper. Open it and zoom in.

Abstract

Major evolutionary transitions, from molecules to cells, cells to organisms, organisms to colonies, recur across four billion years with a shared signature. This paper formalises that signature as two coupled engines: a vulnerability ratchet that makes the parts depend on the whole, and a scale-communication challenge that integration must solve to cross the threshold. A system of ordinary differential equations models the dynamics, retrodicts five biological transitions and the rise and fall of historical societies, and is then applied to the integration of humanity and its technologies happening now. The same mechanism that turned cells into bodies is turning a species into a planetary system.

Cite it

BibTeX 路 The paper
@misc{redondo2026twoengines,
  author    = {Redondo, Nyx},
  title     = {The Two Engines of Evolutionary Transitions: A General
               Mechanism for Major Evolutionary Transitions Applied
               to the Planetary Scale},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {Zenodo},
  doi       = {10.5281/zenodo.19157559},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19157559},
  note      = {Preprint}
}

Ask about it

Ask Earth Model about the paperOn the poster's page, Earth Model knows this paper and answers at any hour.