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Mountain Man's Global News Archive Evolution and Thermodynamics
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Mountain Man's Global News Archive Evolution and Thermodynamics
Web Publication by Mountain Man Graphics, Australia
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Evolution and Thermodynamics |
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(NOTE; First of two articles)
On Sun, 23 Aug 1998, Sam Minnee wrote:
> 2nd law of thermodynamics:
> Stuff gets more disordered over time
>
> Evolution:
> Stuff gets more ordered over time
>
> I'm genuinely confused.
The idea that biological evolution somehow contradicts the Second Law of
Thermodynamics is a VCM (very common misconception). The simplest way to
see that nothing is wrong is to recall that the second law ("the entropy
of a closed system is nondecreasing") applies only to closed systems,
whereas thermodynamically the Earth is about as nonclosed as you can
get--- it receives a constant influx of energy from the Sun, which is then
reradiated to deep space. This energy flux provides the power which
drives all biological processes, including biological evolution.
A more complete answer would address the idea that the evolution of
complex life forms on Earth from less complex forms implies that
"ecosystems get more complex over time". There is in fact no satisfactory
theory of the complexity of ecosystems, and this whole issue is a very
vexed one. Since there is no viable mathematical theory, some scientists
can take the view that this is "obviously" true and others can take the
view that it is probably not at all true. For the later view see for
instance the perceptive remarks of George Williams in his classic book
Author: Williams, George C. (George Christopher), 1926-.
Title: Adaptation and natural selection; a critique of some current
evolutionary thought [by] George C. Willams.
Pub. Info.: Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1966.
LC Subject: Adaptation-Biology.
Natural-selection.
My own hunch is that when a good mathematical theory of biocomplexity is
available, it will turn out that there are many distinct (and
scientifically useful!) notions of biological complexity, and that the
truth is much more complex ;-) than either extreme and simple-minded view
("life gets more complex over time", "life does not") would have us
believe.
If you want to read more about this, a good place to start might be two
classic books
Author: Blum, Harold F. (Harold Francis), 1899-.
Title: Time's arrow and evolution.
Pub. Info.: Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1951.
LC Subject: Evolution.
Thermodynamics.
Cosmogony.
Author: Schrodinger, Erwin, 1887-1961.
Title: What is life? and other scientific essays.
Pub. Info.: Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday 1956.
LC Subject: Life-Biology.
Biophysics.
Some early attempts to get a grip on the role of entropy and information
theory in biology include:
Author: Yockey, Hubert P.
Title: Symposium on information theory in biology, Gatlinburg,
Tennessee, October 29-31, 1956. Edited by Hubert P. Yockey
with
the assistance of Robert L. Platzman [and] Henry Quastler.
Pub. Info.: New York, Pergamon Press, Symposium Publications Division
[1958].
LC Subject: Biology -- Congresses.
Information-theory-in-biology.
Author: Elsasser, Walter M., 1904-.
Title: The physical foundation of biology; an analytical study.
Pub. Info.: London, New York, Pergamon Press, 1958.
LC Subject: Biology -- Philosophy.
Life-Biology.
Information-theory.
Author: Quastler, Henry.
Title: The emergence of biological organization.
Pub. Info.: New Haven, Yale University Press, 1964.
LC Subject: Information-theory-in-biology.
Heredity.
Author: Gatlin, Lila L., 1928-.
Title: Information theory and the living system [by] Lila L.
Gatlin.
Pub. Info.: New York, Columbia University Press [1972].
LC Subject: Information-theory-in-biology.
Author: Calow, Peter.
Title: Biological machines : a cybernetic approach to life / Peter
Calow.
Pub. Info.: London : Edward Arnold, 1976.
LC Subject: Information-theory-in-biology.
Biological-control-systems.
Cybernetics.
But if you want to look into these, you should definitely first learn the
modern theory of information from a textbook such as
Author: Cover, T. M., 1938-.
Title: Elements of information theory / Thomas M. Cover, Joy A
Thomas.
Pub. Info.: New York : Wiley, c1991.
LC Subject: Information-theory.
Be aware that many of the early papers in this field are based upon
misconceptions of fundamental concepts of information theory. One should
be cautious, in fact, in reading even the most recent papers--- this is a
very subtle area and many of the people writing in this field do not
(IMHO) have an adequate mathematical background. (I hasten to add that
on the other hand, I myself do not have an adequate biological
background--- in fact, I'd go so far as to wonder aloud whether -anyone-
is really qualified to work in this area, which probably explains why
forty years after the first conference devoted to this field, it remains
contentious!)
Some more recent books on biological evolution, ecology, entropy, and
information include:
Author: Brooks, D. R. (Daniel R.), 1951-.
Title: Evolution as entropy : toward a unified theory of biology /
Daniel R. Brooks and E.O. Wiley.
Pub. Info.: Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1986.
LC Subject: Evolution.
Entropy.
Author: Oyama, Susan.
Title: The ontogeny of information : developmental systems and
evolution / Susan Oyama.
Pub. Info.: Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1985.
LC Subject: Information-theory-in-biology.
Evolution.
Title: Entropy, information, and evolution : new perspectives on
physical and biological evolution / edited by Bruce H Weber,
David J. Depew, and James D. Smith.
Pub. Info.: Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c1988.
LC Subject: Evolution -- Congresses.
Entropy -- Congresses.
Entropy-Information-theory -- Congresses.
Cosmology -- Congresses.
Title: Thermodynamics and regulation of biological processes /
editors,
I. Lamprecht, A.I. Zotin.
Pub. Info.: Berlin ; New York : Walter de Gruyter, 1985.
LC Subject: Biophysics.
Thermodynamics.
Biological-control-systems.
Information-theory-in-biology.
Evolution.
Ontogeny.
Author: Ayres, Robert U.
Title: Information, entropy, and progress : a new evolutionary
paradigm
/ Robert U. Ayres.
Pub. Info.: Woodbury, NY : AIP Press, c1994.
LC Subject: Information-theory.
Evolution.
Evolution-Biology.
Economics.
Title: What is life? : the next fifty years : speculations on the
future of biology / edited by Michael P. Murphy, Luke A.J
O'Neill.
Pub. Info.: Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1995.
LC Subject: Biology -- Philosophy -- Congresses.
Biology -- Congresses.
Life-Biology -- Congresses.
Schrodinger-Erwin-1887-1961-What-is-life -- Congresses.
Author: Wicken, Jeffrey S.
Title: Evolution, thermodynamics & information : extending the
Darwinian program / Jeffrey S. Wicken.
Pub. Info.: New York : Oxford University Press, 1987.
LC Subject: Evolution.
Life-Biology.
Life -- Origin.
Information-theory-in-biology.
Thermodynamics.
Author: Sampson, Jeffrey R., 1942-.
Title: Biological information processing : current theory and
computer
simulation / Jeffrey R. Sampson.
Pub. Info.: Chichester [West Sussex] ; New York : Wiley, 1984.
LC Subject: Information-theory-in-biology -- Mathematical-models.
Information-theory-in-biology -- Data-processing.
Author: Mackey, Michael C., 1942-.
Title: Time's arrow : the origins of thermodynamic behavior /
Michael C. Mackey.
Pub. Info.: New York : Springer-Verlag, c1992.
LC Subject: Thermodynamics.
Entropy.
Author: Layzer, David.
Title: Cosmogenesis : the growth of order in the universe / David
Layzer.
Pub. Info.: New York : Oxford University Press, 1990.
LC Subject: Cosmology.
Evolution.
Author: Yockey, Hubert P.
Title: Information theory and molecular biology / Hubert P. Yockey.
Pub. Info.: Cambridge ; New York, NT, USA : Cambridge University Press,
1992.
LC Subject: Molecular-biology.
Information-theory-in-biology.
MeSH Subject: Information-Theory.
Molecular-Biology.
(The above suggestions are far from a complete bibliography--- this is a
huge field.)
Finally, let me stress again that ultimately if you want to think about
this subject, I believe you will have to deal with some of the hardest
subjects in physics, including the ancient question of how thermodynamics
arises from statistical mechanics (the current "best theory" of this
involves C*-algebras, i.e. pretty challenging stuff), various "paradoxes"
involved in these "thermodynamic limits", and new and very hard questions
in physics involving black hole thermodynamics and the (as yet unknown)
theory of quantum gravity, such as the holography conjecture and the
"information paradox", for which see various expository preprints on the
Los Alamos preprint server
http://xxx.lanl.gov
(note that this site has a search tool).
Chris Hillman
Please DO NOT email me at optimist@u.washington.edu. I post from this account
to fool the spambots; human correspondents should write to me at the email
address you can obtain by making the obvious deletions, transpositions,
and insertion (of @) in the url of my home page:
http://www.math.washington.edu/~hillman/personal.html
Thanks!
NonEquilibrium Thermodynamics |
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SYSTEMS DEFINED
With respect to nonequilibrium thermodynamics, systems are defined as
"open" -- open to matter and energy, "closed" -- closed to matter, and
"isolated" -- closed to matter and energy. [ p. 5, MODERN THERMODYNAMICS,
Kondepudi & Prigogine; Wiley, 1998 ]
With respect to nonequilibrium thermodynamics, the earth is defined as a
"closed" system, but Prigogine won the Nobel Prize in 1977 for applying
thermodynamics to "open" systems.
WHAT IS LIFE
Erwin Schrodinger (1945) has described life as a system in steady-state
thermodynamic disequilibrium that maintains its constant distance from
equilibrium (death) by feeding on low entropy from its environment -- that
is, by exchanging high-entropy outputs for low-entropy inputs. The same
statement would hold verbatim as a physical description of our economic
process. A corollary of this statement is an organism cannot live in a
medium of its own waste products. [ p. 253, Daly and Townsend, 1994]
Nobel laureate Erwin Shrödinger's What is Life? is one of the great science
classics of the twentieth century. A distinguished physicist's exploration
of the question which lies at the heart of biology, it was written for the
layman, but proved one of the spurs to the birth of molecular biology and
the subsequent discovery of the structure of DNA. The philosopher Karl
Popper hailed it as a 'beautiful and important book'. It appears here
together with Mind and Matter, his essay investigating a relationship which
has eluded and puzzled philosophers since the earliest times. Brought
together with these two classics are Shrödinger's autobiographical sketches,
published and translated here for the first time, which offer a fascinating
fragmentary account of his life as a background to his scientific writings.
'This book is a gem with many facets.., one can read it in a few hours; one
will not forget it in a lifetime.' Scientific American
'Erwin Shrödinger, iconoclastic physicist, stood at the pivotal point of
history when physics was the midwife of the new science of molecular
biology. In these little books he set down, clearly and concisely, most of
the great conceptual issues that confront the scientist who would attempt to
unravel the mysteries of life. This combined volume should be compulsory
reading for all students who are seriously concerned with truly deep issues
of science.' Paul Davies. I archived a chapter of WHAT IS LIFE at
http://dieoff.com/page150.htm
Here is what Laszlo says about open system thermodynamics:
"The third possible category is that in which systems are far from thermal
and chemical equilibrium. Such systems are nonlinear and pass through
indeterminate phases. They do not tend toward minimum free energy and
maximum specific entropy but amplify certain fluctuations and evolve toward
a new dynamic regime that is radically different from stationary states at
or near equilibrium.
"Prima facie the evolution of systems in the far-from-equilibrium state
appears to contradict the famous Second Law of Thermodynamics. How can
systems actually increase their level of complexity and organization, and
become more energetic? The Second Law states that in any isolated system
organization and structure tend to disappear, to be replaced by uniformity
and randomness. Contemporary scientists know that evolving systems are not
isolated, and thus that the Second Law does not fully describe what takes
place in them—more precisely, between them and their environment. Systems in
the third category are always and necessarily open systems, so that change
of entropy within them is not determined uniquely by irreversible internal
processes. Internal processes within them do obey the Second Law: free
energy, once expanded, is unavailable to perform further work. But energy
available to perform further work can be "imported" by open systems from
their environment: there can be a transport of free energy—or negative
entropy—across the system boundaries. * When the two quantities—the free
energy within the system, and the free energy transported across the system
boundaries from the environment—balance and offset each other, the system is
in a steady (i.e., in a stationary) state. As in a dynamic environment the
two terms seldom balance each other for any extended period of time, in the
real world systems are at best "metastable": they tend to fluctuate around
the states that define their steady states, rather than settle into them
without further variation.
footnote:
* Change in the entropy of the systems is defined by the well-known
Prigogine equation dS = djS + deS Here dS is the total change of entropy in
the system, while djS is the entropy changed produced by irreversible
processes within it and deS is the entropy transported across the system
boundaries. In an isolated system dS is always positive, for it is uniquely
determined by djS, which necessarily grows as the system performs work.
However, in an open system deS can offset the entropy produced within the
system and may even exceed it. Thus dS in an open system need not be
positive: it can be zero or negative. The open system can be in a stationary
state (dS = 0), or it can grow and complexity (dS < 0). Entropy change in
such a system is given by the equation deS - djS < 0); that is, the entropy
produced by irreversible processes within the system is shifted into the
environment. [ p.p. 106-107]
"In the science of nonequilibrium thermodynamics the evolution of complex
systems is always irreversable because the only alternatives available to
the systems are those of increasing complexity [and increasing energy
consumption], or else total extinction." [p. 23, VISION 2020; Laszlo;
Gordon and Breach, 1994, 212-206-8900 ISBN 2-88124-612-5 ]
Dissipative structures are maintained by the actual mechanical and thermal
flow of energy from the environment through the system. When the
environmental impetus disappears, the dissipative structure will disappear
with it.
When global oil production "peaks" in less than ten years, global society
will disintegrate into chaos.
Jay
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http://dieoff.com/page1.htm