The maximum entropy production principle (MEPP) was repeatedly and independently proposed in the mid-20th century in various fields of physics and proved to be extremely effective in various nonequilibrium problems. We describe the main areas of research that laid the foundations for this principle and discuss its modern form and limitations. We give special attention to a discussion of nonequilibrium phase transitions based on the MEPP and to the relation between the MEPP and other known assertions about the behavior of entropy. We discuss the role of this principle in the analysis of various modern problems in both physics and biology, including the laws of evolution and the definition of life.

最大熵产生原理（MEPP）在 20 世纪中叶在物理学的各个领域中被反复独立提出，并被证明在各种非平衡问题中极为有效。我们描述了为这一原则奠定基础的主要研究领域，并讨论了其现代形式和局限性。我们特别关注基于 MEPP 的非平衡相变的讨论，以及 MEPP 与其他已知的关于熵行为的断言之间的关系。我们讨论了这一原理在分析物理学和生物学中的各种现代问题中的作用，包括进化规律和生命的定义。