[MD] The Anti-entropic Miopic

[Squonkriff at aol.com]

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[Case]
I think you should think about this a while. I have not been  very accurate
in describing entropy. I was working around the points you were  making and
taking liberties in the process. But I would say you are getting  close. I
have always thought your stuff with the sweet spot and coherence and  all are
close they just need to shift up a notch. What you just said here  about
boundaries. Boundaries are where things get interesting. For example  what is
the boundary between the inorganic and biological. I would like to  call it
carbon chemistry but not all organic chemistry is living. Viruses are  seen
as the most primitive life forms but they are little more than DNA  and
protein. Any time you draw a distinction the edges are fuzzy.
 
Mark 04-02-07: Hi Case,
On page 119 of John Leslie's, 'Infinite Minds' he suggests that life is  
parasitical on entropy.
I like the way he puts that, but being a parasite is a long way from  
disobedience.

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[Case] 
No problem at all. Believe me I understand.

Many years  ago I read Jeremy Rifkin's book Entropy. I remember thinking,
"this is  Wrong!" Wrong in a moral as well as actual sense. 

This is called denial;  then came anger. Then I tried to figure a way out of
it. Then I was  depressed. It took years but I followed Kubler-Ross to the
letter and you  know, it's not so bad. 

What's bad is that, all this original source...  where did it all come
from... seeking after a unity... Perfect order is a  single point where all
is one and before that point? ...Nothing. From perfect  order to perfect
disorder; ashes to ashes.

But these things are really  only troublesome if you insist on thinking in
"ultimate" terms. Ultimately,  schmultimately! It has been at least 13
billion years since the point of  perfect order. The estimated time until
perfect disorder is something like 10  with 150 zeros after it.

Life as we know it took 4 billion years to get  here. That is a lot of time. 

All we really need to know is that it has  been this way a really long time
and it is not going anywhere soon. As long  as the inorganic level remains
static the biological level has something to  play with.