[HN Gopher] Entropy: Why Life Always Seems to Get More Complicated
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       Entropy: Why Life Always Seems to Get More Complicated
        
       Author : mouzogu
       Score  : 18 points
       Date   : 2022-06-26 13:20 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (jamesclear.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (jamesclear.com)
        
       | TwoNineA wrote:
       | Nitpick: Entropy is not a force, especially not fundamental
       | force.
        
         | drpyser22 wrote:
         | Not in a literal physical sense. The word is used in a more
         | general sense of "propensity", "tendency".
         | 
         | Consider, while all in the universe tends towards higher
         | entropy - more chaos, less structure, less energy differential
         | - life and other forms of structure (planets, planetary
         | systems, star systems, galaxies, galaxy clusters and super
         | clusters) exist and persist.
         | 
         | Parts of nature conspire to create and maintain structures and
         | organization, fighting against entropy.
        
         | gunfighthacksaw wrote:
         | I like the concept of the chemical potential from statistical
         | mechanics.
         | 
         | The thermal potential (also due to entropy) causes temperature
         | to spread outwards, hot to cold. This can be seen by solving
         | the heat equation.
         | 
         | The chemical potential is that if you have a bunch of "stuff"
         | (particles molecules etc) in one place, they will tend to
         | spread out in space to maximize the entropy.
         | 
         | There's no force or impulse making it happen, it's just that
         | you are far more likely to observe a system with "stuff" spread
         | out than concentrated.
         | 
         | That's why I love entropy. It's not a force or even something
         | super tangible. It's more like the interface between the
         | physical world and the abstract world of probabilities. The
         | realest abstraction of them all.
        
       | VelJun wrote:
       | Reminded me of Steve Mould's explanation of Entropy (using the
       | example of a Sterling Engine).
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2iTCm0xpDc
        
       | lowestprimate wrote:
       | Time only exists because of the change in entropy. Interesting
       | summary https://blog.12min.com/the-order-of-time-pdf-summary/
        
       | kejaed wrote:
       | Why is this place always a mess?
       | 
       | I can't help it, it's the Second Law of Thermodynamics!
        
       | JoeAltmaier wrote:
       | There are rules in the world. I describe it this way: scatter a
       | bunch of small magnets in a pizza box. Close the lid. Shake it
       | (add energy). Open it. What do you see?
       | 
       | Why, the magnets all lined up in stacks! What divine hand must
       | have been at work to create order out of chaos...
       | 
       | Particles, molecules, organic chemistry - thousands of rules. Add
       | energy, and they do amazing things.
        
         | olddustytrail wrote:
         | I'd hesitate to call it a divine hand, but there _was_ the
         | pizza-greased paw that decided to pop some magnets in a box and
         | then give them a shake.
         | 
         | If you're going to argue against intelligent design, it's
         | probably best done without a designed experiment :-)
        
           | adammarples wrote:
           | The hand is irrelevant here from a design perspective. The
           | hand crafted a closed system (pizza box) which is analogous
           | to any real closed system (ie. an ocean) and added random
           | energy to it. The result is a perfect stack every time, not
           | due to design but structural determinism.
        
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       (page generated 2022-06-26 23:02 UTC)