  It is increasingly evident that there is more to biological evolution than
natural selection; moreover, the concept of evolution is not limited to
biology. We propose an integrative framework for characterizing how entities
evolve, in which evolution is viewed as a process of context-driven
actualization of potential (CAP). Processes of change differ according to the
degree of nondeterminism, and the degree to which they are sensitive to,
internalize, and depend upon a particular context. The approach enables us to
embed phenomena across disciplines into a broad conceptual framework. We give
examples of insights into physics, biology, culture and cognition that derive
from this unifying framework.
