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ANNOTATION:
Not a necessary feature...
I think that this is not a necessary feature but something that quite often arises in evolutionary processes. The degree of selectiveness on either chaotic or stable processes can be equated with the relative passage of time, at least as time is most often measured by individuals- a rate of change in perceivable elements, say, the movement of a clock, the decay of an apple left on the table, whatever. Now I admit that in focusing on the emphasis on stability there are two elements - the rate of change and the amount of "disruptive" versus "settling" change. That the amount of settling change is greater than the amount of disruptive change is not necessary for evolution or even for an increase in complexity to occur provided that the degree of "disruptive" behavior is preserved elsewhere in the system space. It is completely dependant on where we draw our distinctions - if it is only so far as the object of complexity and its specific media and not the media from which it arose as a whole - say, the ice crystal and not the dustcloud, the tree and not the forest on which it arose- then it is perfectly true that area-specific assymetrical transition is necessary but it is not true of the region as a whole, which may be said to be undergoing evolutionary processes as well, and even contributing to the complexification occuring at some point within there, which may have been impossible without the interaction with the disrupting space, for example, the shell of a sea creature which would not have evolved without the disrupting ocean is nonetheless an increase of complexity that fulfills the conditions of selective retention. In fact I think it is the interaction between the assymetrically transitioning and nonassymetrically transitioning space which drives evolution, for the selective retention would not occur without an "entropic zone" which the creature needed to protect itself from. Reproduction is not beneficial in an environment where there are not things going around killing you off, as is seen in those halophilic bacteria they keep finding preserved in salt, for example, and neither is any other structure, really, so in essence it could be said that a bordering area of greater disruptiveness was necessary as well as it could be said that an area of less disruptiveness was necessary - but the inclusion of both into a description would be the most accurate indeed, for in either case you either are merely observing a process of settling and crystallization or a process of destructive dessication.
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