Roberto writes:
>We humans arise from simple physical/chemical processes which recursively
>self organize into adaptive complex systems. But these simple processes
>are unconscious, automatic, darwinian; they are basic but mindless
>building blocks. By focusing on these physical processes and trying to
>map them into the behaviour of social organizations, we work at too small
>a scale; we end up looking at the building blocks, not at the richly
>complex emergent properties that these building blocks yield.
Just this morning I was reading _The Road Less Traveled_ by M. Scott Peck.
He says that physical evolution appears to violate the second law of
thermodynamics, namely that left to themselves natural processes will
degenerate to a state of entropy, or complete lack of differentiation at
the lowest energy level. He goes on to posit God as the basis for this,
but I'm looking for a more satisfying answer. Can anyone explain how
evolution works? I'm not talking about the process of mutation and
natural selection; I'm wondering about why the second law of
thermodynamics, as Peck expressed it, doesn't seem to operate. What is at
work and how does it operate? How do natural systems emerge and increase
in their complexity?
Dave
-- David E. Birren Phone: (608)267-2442 Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources Fax: (608)267-3579 Bureau of Management & Budget E-mail: birred@dnr.state.wi.usWe shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. (from T. S. Eliot's "Little Gidding")