Batting for Entropy...

The second law of thermodynamics is unequivocal. It asserts that a natural process runs only in one direction and is not reversible. Every process increases entropy, and eventually entropy will be total.

Less well known is a proposed fourth law of dynamics, based on work done a century ago by Alfred Lotka, that states “evolution proceeds in such a direction as to make the total energy flux through a system a maximum compatible with the constraints”, or as I see it, “to hell with entropy, life is not going down without a fight”

That takes me to definitions of life. There is an increasing recognition that anything that interacts with something else represents a level of intelligence, and intelligence is life. It is most fluently, and beautifully expressed in James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis.

Personally, I end up with a simple observation that feels right to me. Entropy is a hungry beast, and it will accept everything we offer it. Evolution favours that which sustains life in all its forms,…