Increasing Entropy: Heat Death or Perpetual Harmonies?

Increasing Entropy: Heat Death or Perpetual Harmonies?

R.E. Ulanowicz 

Department of Botany and Zoology, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA

University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Solomons, USA

Page: 
83-96
|
DOI: 
https://doi.org/10.2495/DNE-V4-N2-83-96
Received: 
N/A
| |
Accepted: 
N/A
| | Citation

OPEN ACCESS

Abstract: 

Classically, the increase of entropy implies an ineluctable dissipation of energy and materials into what is known as ‘heat death’. A strictly logical take on the Boltzmann entropy reveals, however, that the measure amalgamates order with disorganization. Hence, under some nonequilibrium circumstances, the production of order becomes an inevitable feature of increasing entropy. In particular, perpetual harmonies can emerge from the collapse of nonequilibrium configurations. Data from networks of trophic interactions in real ecosystems reveal a preferred balance between dissipation and order at an approximate ratio of 1:e – a phenomenon that possibly could inform the search for sustainable systems.

Keywords: 

autocatalysis, complexity, dissipation, dualism, ecosystems, entropy, heat death, indeterminacy, information, monism, nonequilibrium, second law, sustainability, thermodynamics

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