Wednesday, January 10, 2018

A Refutation of Heat Death (On Entropy and Consciousness)

"The distinction between materialism and spirituality is an artificial one; the dichotomy which sets religion against science is a false one. The two worlds are one; the heavens and the earth are entangled and intertwined."
The second law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of a closed system tends to increase. The prevailing interpretation of this holds that this law leads inevitably to a decaying universe within which no life can survive.

However, it has not been properly recognized that fully within the bounds of the second law lies the possibility of two subsystems, one of decreasing entropy, and one of increasing entropy. Intelligence functions to distinguish between the two systems, playing the role of Maxwell's Demon--sorting the larger system into two subsystems, one of decreased entropy and one of increased entropy. Biological intelligence has evolved to distinguish between the two systems via the system of perception in order to decrease the entropy of the environment of the individual and its offspring in order to increase the possibility of the propagation of the individual's genes.

However, a gene is only one sort of abstract pattern which can be protected and vied for through evolutionary processes. Any abstract pattern is subject to natural laws of evolution, reproduction, and propagation. Concepts, in and of themselves, are patterns which are subject to these natural laws. Self-replication typically increases the fertility or fecundity of a pattern. If a pattern is found to possess both fertility (the tendency to self-replicate) and durability (a long half-life), it will likely enjoy a high prevalence (the degree to which it is widespread, or common, within the system.)

Noting that entropy is a measurable quantity, it follows that for the entropy of one subsystem (Subsystem A) to decrease while the entropy of the entire system increases, the entropy of the rest of the system (Subsystem B) must increase by a magnitude which is at least as great as the magnitude of the decrease of Subsystem A.

While the universe as a whole must experience an increase in entropy, it is possible for some section of it to experience a decrease in entropy. Intelligent life is that pattern which drives the separation of the whole system (universe) into the two final subsystems, which might be characterized as Chaotic (or "Disordered") and Assembled (or "Ordered.") It is therefore primarily by the organizing capacity inherent in intelligence and consciousness that the defiance of heat death can occur.

This seems to provide an answer to the supposed heat-death of the universe: While the entropy of the system taken as a whole must continue to increase, subsystems may be created by intelligent agents within which entropy can continue to decrease indefinitely, as long as other subsystems continue to increase in entropy by at least the same amount.