The speaker characterizes evolution as the process by which living patterns deepen their imprint on the world, controlling it and overcoming noise, entropy, and departures from their expectations and preferences, rather than merely replicating.

“And so evolution is about life, about patterns that are not simply replicating themselves, but deepening themselves. That imprint themselves more in the world by controlling it, by being able to overcome the noise, the entropy, the way in which the universe goes out of sync with your expectations and with your preferences.”