🚀 go-pugleaf

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!