Look into SIT and AIT http://www.nici.kun.nl/Divisions/d3/info.html
Ray talks about progressive complexification, but where is it? I don't think I'm using this term in the correct way, but it seems like earth's progressive complexification happened because there was a steady supply of free energy in the form of the sun. If you take entropy production as a measure of complexity, and you assume CPU cycles are your energy source, then it becomes impossible for the system as a whole to increase its entropy production. It simply can't be making use of more cycles, because the cycles are fixed in supply.