Though we live in a universe that has to be operated according to the second law of thermodynamic (entropy increase), once a while, I thought we human should contribute less to the chaotic status and control the energy distribution: TO PURSUE LOWER INCREASE OF ENTROPY. In this way, the environment may be well preserved and the universe may last longer. Biodiverse natural forest v.s. Overdeveloped chaotic city.
However, this belief kept being challenged by my or others' research work, especially in the field of materials science. As materials researchers, we aim at making materials with better performance. We have found that concentrated solid solution with high entropy of mixing, high entropy alloys proved themselves to be greater candidates than low entropy materials. And a scientist even pointed out that activities with spreading out of energy (high entropy) is more attractive to human than the monotonous ones. So, TO PURSUE HIGHER INCREASE OF ENTROPY.
This is a widely open discussion. Whatever field you're from, I want to know what your philosophy is on this subject.
If we remove people from Universe nothing would change in terms of entropy. We are too far from competition with stars and galaxies. So, no worries about entropy. There are other things to worry about.
If we remove people from Universe nothing would change in terms of entropy. We are too far from competition with stars and galaxies. So, no worries about entropy. There are other things to worry about.
I may NOT agree with Vladimir Dusevich Sir. If we look at the universe as a dynamic harmonious isolated system, then even the small contribution of the humankind in increasing the entropy, as compared to stars and galaxies, may disturb the harmonicity of the universe afterward. Thus, I think that the insight given by Zhe Ren is valid. However, as Vladimir Dusevich mentioned, our worries should be about the direct and fairly close risks. In this regard, we should be worried about the increase of the enthalpy of the atmosphere rather than the entropy of the universe.
Your question simplicity assumes that our type of life is the only one (that life we see around us). The question is: "Is it representing all form of life?"
Nevertheless, for example, we know that at higher temperatures instead of carbon-based life we will encounter silica bases life, which is more chemically stable there. Hence, the increase in the overall temperature can lead to a different type of life. It is similar to the decrease of the temperature.
From the study of extremophiles, we know that oxygen-based metabolism is not the most common among them. The question is what happens with life when we enter high pressures.
We can continue in the same fashion with physics laws and material properties changes with changing pressures and temperatures. We still do not know enough.
What might be a conclusion? We might be really surprised at what happens when we change the local properties of the Universe. There might be existing islands of thriving life in regions of unbelievable temperatures and pressures.
From the point of life, changes in entropy may trigger different evolutionary paths as certain living strategies will give more sense than others.
We are currently aware of the fact that life is at its certain layers following complex systems theory, self, -organization, emergence, self-repair, self-replication, and many other phenomena observe in complexity.
We already entered the era when such mathematics started to be used in biology and medicine. For a condemned introduction into the subject, you can read the review
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330546521_Complex_Systems_and_Their_Use_in_Medicine_Concepts_Methods_and_Bio-Medical_Applications
By the way, the concept of entropy is heavily used in modern mathematical research of human physiology. It has great potential to change our view of body functioning and bring medicine towards holistic therapies. It is my main research field.
Dear Zee Ran,
As entropy concern, from research to life, low entropy shall always be preferred over high entropy. High entropy would indicate less energy useful for work in a system. Low entropy would suggest greater energy availability. In our universe, the law of entropy suggests that as time passes, less and less energy will become available for use. If the universe is eternal and steady state there must be some mechanisms that reverses entropy. entropy reversing mechanisms would be within galaxies.
Hope it help you out.
Ashish
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