The Evolutionary Advantage of Being Conservative: The Role of Hysteresis

In the quest of universal laws underlying the behaviour of living organisms it is mandatory to remember that all forms of life are the result of an endless evolutionary process. Evolution itself (in an ever changing environment) requires continuous cycles of random mutations and selection of the fittest to the new environment. Selection means that for one winner there will be many losers, that will disappear. Competition for essential nutrients is the battlefield: the winner will be able to take up enough nutrients to duplicate itself. Selection is a all or none process. The single individual can override the competitors and duplicate or not, it cannot duplicate partially. The whole picture is full of uncertainty: the amount of energy required to duplicate depends on local factors like nutrients concentration or the number and the strength of the competitors. Due to the limited energy availability any living organism had to develop strategies to spare energy and to afford duplication only in favourable conditions. The knowledge of the environment as a tool for successful competition is a scale insensitive feature of living organisms. The evolutionary winner, the fittest, is the one that know more about the environment. Hysteretic behaviour, as a memory of more recent past, may represent a significant advantage in the struggle for survival in our overcrowded environments