Re: Lizard engines and rat engines


"Guy Hoelzer" <hoelzer@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:davmfp$1ee5$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> In a way, I think that Biology has taken the lead on this perspective and
> that the (other) physical sciences are in the process of embracing the
> utility and validity of the teleological stance. In my view, this is
> being
> developed out of thermodynamics, which is certainly about the attribution
> of
> final cause. The revolution in the paradigm here requires a restatement
> of
> the second law, although there are also many proponents of articulating a
> fourth law. The difference is subtle in my estimation, but also profound.
> Rather than having a second law that merely limits the scope of potential
> outcome of a dynamic process to those that do not decrease the entropy of
> a
> closed system (IMHO this is code for the universe as a whole), many
> physicists are coming to appreciate a law that favors the emergence of
> systems that increase the RATE of entropy gain in closed systems through
> self-organization. This conjecture (to avoid over-assertion) about
> thermodynamics mimics the notion that natural selection favors changes in
> biological populations that increase fitness, and has enormous
> implications
> for all the sciences. It also implies a sort of natural teleology,
> because
> it suggests that dynamic systems ultimately exist for the purpose of
> increasing the rate of universal entropy gain.
>
> Guy Hoelzer

Guy,

Lots of people who claim to understand thermodynamics seem to have a view of
it that defies the conservation of energy and mass in the universe. A
conception of entropy as a loss of energy and/or mass runs contrary to all
the empirical evidence in any of the sciences.

Some would view entropy as a loss of order. But such a view would
contravene conservation of energy and mass.
All entroy means -- if it does not contradict conservation of mass and
energy -- is that any particular constellation of them is impermanent. The
manifestation of "disorder" or "loss of order" is comparable to the
manifestation of what is a weed. Just as a weed can be viewed as something
that is in a place where it is not wanted, entropy can be viewed as a
departure from a wanted constellation.

For example: To view a reciprocating engine as an orderly thing is to say
that someone wants it to do a certain thing efficiently. Entropy occurs in
the form of loss of mechanical benefit from fuel combustion, just as a weed
takes some nutrients a farmer might want to go into his crop. To view the
loss of some of the energy of an engine in the
form of heat does not mean any matter or energy are lost (as some people
seem to take entropy to mean). It simply means the maker or user of an
engine does not get 100 % of his way, nor 100 % of the time.

Some people seem to ascribe some metaphysical properties to the fact that we
humans do not get things 100 % our way, 100 % of the time, mechanically, and
depict entropy as a tendency of things to fall into disorder unless energy
is exerted to keep them "in order."

If one puts a thousand black marbles and a thousand white marbles into a jar
and repeatedly shakes them, it is possible for them to align in such a way
as to spell a word, such as "order," when viewed from one side of the jar
(or even from multiple sides). If the next good shaking puts them in a
configuration whereby they are equally distributed throughout the jar, that
is no more than one more configuration. And if, shaken again, the marbles
form the word "help" on one side of the jar, that is still another.

The universe (so far as any can tell) contains mass and energy; and they
continually are changing from one to the other. The only way one
configuration is order, and another disorder, is meaningful only with
respect to who likes them a certain way, and dislikes them another.

Often we read allusions to causes and effects that are comparable to
someone's noting that a roulette wheel comes up with the sequence
28-3-14-31-0-3 and says, "Okay, now what was it about 28 that caused 3 to
follow; and what was it about 3 that caused 14 to follow... (etc.)"

Some things DO express 1:1 relationships, some 1:1000, some 1: a number
which could not be written on this page.

Two of the most frequently misunderstood things in the world -- it seems to
this grasshopper -- are the notion of
entropy and the notion of cause and effect. And it is bad enough that some
people do not comprehend them in science; but when they carry the
misunderstandings over into metaphysics, that is when things begin to get
really
wacky.

g




.

Relevant Pages

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