- #1
madness
- 815
- 70
Life, on first glance, appears to violate the second law of thermodynamics. This is because we see an apparent increase in complexity over time, i.e. a decrease of entropy. The resolution of this apparent violation is supposed to be that the sun provides enough energy and expends enough entropy to offset the decrease in entropy here on Earth. But do we have a theoretical explanation of why complexity is increasing on Earth at all? Can we state the conditions under which a system will be driven towards increasing complexity, potentially leading to the emergence of life? The fact that shining heat and light onto a rotating mass of solid and gas leads to this steady increase in complexity still feels quite surprising to me.