From: Anders Sandberg (nv91-asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Wed Aug 20 1997 - 05:29:07 MDT
On Tue, 19 Aug 1997, Prof. Jose Gomes Filho wrote:
> > But it isn't so simple that life appears when entropy
> > decreases, there are plenty of entropy decreasing but non-living
> > processes (like freezing a liquid).
>
> ****** Yes. Maybe not freezing, but just decreasing its temperature
> to a locally optimal value... like here, on Earth...
Why is this locally optimal? Yes, it is optimal to us, but from an
entropy standpoint entropy could be decreased a lot if we just froze
the entire world into a chunk of ice.
Complexity can thrive when the local entropy isn't too low or too
high ("the edge of chaos"). The entropy flow out of the system sets
an upper limit to the complexity of the structures which can exist in
it.
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