Monday, January 11, 2016

Entropy

The followings are excerpts from "A New Physics Theory of Life". 
(Refer to: https://www.quantamagazine.org/20140122-a-new-physics-theory-of-life/)

Quote:
"Jeremy England argues that under certain conditions, matter will spontaneously self-organize. This tendency could account for the internal order of living things and of many inanimate structures as well. “Snowflakes, sand dunes and turbulent vortices all have in common that they are strikingly patterned structures that emerge in many-particle systems driven by some dissipative process,” he said. Condensation, wind and viscous drag are the relevant processes in these particular cases."

"He is currently running computer simulations to test his theory that systems of particles adapt their structures to become better at dissipating energy. The next step will be to run experiments on living systems."
:Unquote

(My commentary)
England said, "under certain conditions, matter will spontaneously self-organize." Does this mean that matter, or each particle has mind, or the capacity to make choices? Freeman John Dyson said, "Atoms and humans and God may have minds that differ in degree but not in kind. --- Atoms in the laboratory are weird stuff, behaving like active agents rather than inert substances. They make unpredictable choices between alternative possibilities according to the laws of quantum mechanics. It appears that mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent inherent in every atom." I feel that England and Dyson are saying the same thing.
(Refer to: http://compassion5151.blogspot.jp/2015/09/atoms-may-have-minds.html)

(Cf.: WHAT IS LIFE? by ERWIN SCHRODINGER in 1943
http://whatislife.stanford.edu/LoCo_files/What-is-Life.pdf

Jeremy England