Re: 2nd law clarifications

On 02/01/2025 06:53, MarkE wrote:

Are these statements correct? Could they be better expressed?
  Local entropy can decrease in an open system with an input of free energy.
 Free energy alone is not sufficient to maintain or further decrease low local entropy: an energy capture and transformation mechanism is also needed.
 Extant life *maintains* low local entropy through its organisation and processes.
 Evolving life *decreases* low local entropy through the ratcheting mechanism natural selection acting on random mutations in instances where that evolution increases functional complexity and organisation.
 There is no other known mechanism apart from natural selection that does this. For example, neutral drift alone increases entropy.
 

It is difficult to operationalise the concept of irreducible complexity, as that necessitates a principled definition of system, part and function. But if you pass over that point, there are at least three classes of paths (exaption, scaffolding, coevolution) whereby irreducibly complex systems can evolve. I suspect that the last is the most frequent, and that it can be driven by drift as well as by selection. If you are equating an increase in functional complexity and organisation with a decrease in entropy, then this would negate a claim that neutral drift always increases entropy.
--
alias Ernest Major