  Far-from-equilibrium thermodynamics underpins the emergence of life, but how
has been a long-outstanding puzzle. Best candidate theories based on the
maximum entropy production principle could not be unequivocally proven, in part
due to complicated physics, unintuitive stochastic thermodynamics, and the
existence of alternative theories such as the minimum entropy production
principle. Here, we use a simple, analytically solvable, one-dimensional
bistable chemical system to demonstrate the validity of the maximum entropy
production principle. To generalize to multistable stochastic system, we use
the stochastic least-action principle to derive the entropy production and its
role in the stability of nonequilibrium steady states. This shows that in a
multistable system, all else being equal, the steady state with the highest
entropy production is favored, with a number of implications for the evolution
of biological, physical, and geological systems.
