🚀 go-pugleaf

baez@math.ucr.edu (john baez) writes:

> 
> 
> In article <bgrafspty2.fsf@janus.i-have-a-misconfigured-system-so-shoot-me>,
> Marcelo Cantos  <marcelo@mds.rmit.edu.au> wrote:
> 
> >I believe where you go wrong is in the assertion that
> >living systems are far from equilibrium.  If you look at organisms
> >around you, they are extremely stable entities.  Humans don't
> >spontaneously dismantle on the street as a daily occurrence...
> 
[...]
> Living systems aren't like either of these examples.  They
> stay out of equilibrium in the way dissipative systems like
> hurricanes do, i.e. by feeding off free energy.  (Of course
> living systems do so in a far more complex manner.)  Eventually
> they return to equilibrium, by dying and rotting.  People do 
> this as a daily occurence, and here in L.A. they often do so
> on the street, usually with a little nudge.

You actually caught on to a slight discrepancy in my argument: people
do, in fact, spontaneously dismantle on the street.  And it probably
*is* a daily occurrence.  See my other post for what I *really* meant!
:-)


-- 
______________________________________________________________________
Marcelo Cantos, Research Assistant      __/_   marcelo@mds.rmit.edu.au
Multimedia Database Systems Group, RMIT  /       _  Tel 61-3-9282-2497
723 Swanston St, Carlton VIC 3053    Aus/ralia ><_> Fax 61-3-9282-2490
Acknowledgements: errors - me; wisdom - God; funding - RMIT