Time, Entropy and the Arrow of Evolution: Natural Intelligence (NI) as a Regulatory Principle for Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness within Holistic Information Theory (HIT)

ABSTRACT This study examines time and entropy not as passive physical parameters, but as active evolutionary functions within information-based systems. From the perspective of Holistic Information Theory (HIT), time is interpreted as the directional expression of information change, while entropy represents the structural distribution of informational possibilities rather than mere disorder. The study introduces natural intelligence (NI) as a fundamental regulatory principle emerging from evolutionary information processes. In contrast to artificial intelligence (AI), which operates through algorithmic optimisation within predefined frameworks, NI is understood as a self-organising, self-referential capacity that integrates information, meaning, adaptation and responsibility across biological, cognitive and social systems. By analysing the arrow of time as an informational gradient, the study argues that increasing complexity, consciousness and intelligence are not accidental by-products of entropy, but structured outcomes of evolutionary information dynamics. Within this framework, NI functions as a stabilising and corrective mechanism that prevents purely technical intelligence from diverging from evolutionary coherence. The study concludes that the future development of AI cannot be understood independently of natural intelligence. Instead, AI must be embedded within broader informational, ethical and evolutionary contexts governed by NI. Time and entropy thus appear not as limits of intelligence, but as conditions for its meaningful regulation and sustainable integration into human and planetary systems.