Nature's Longing for Beauty: Elegance as an Evolutionary Attractor,with Implications for Human Systems

This article suggests that the tendency of living systems to move toward more practical and more aesthetically fitting states be hypothesized as an evolutionary principle. The viewpoints of scientists and systems thinkers on the place of elegance in nature are considered, along with a discussion of issues related to perception of beauty. Implications for human systems and for meeting the challenges we presently face are considered.