#1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy_and_life

Later, building on this premise, in the famous 1944 book What is Life?, Nobel-laureate physicist Erwin Schrödinger theorizes that life, contrary to the general tendency dictated by the Second law of thermodynamics, decreases or maintains its entropy by feeding on negative entropy. In his note to Chapter 6 of What is Life?, however, Schrödinger remarks on his usage of the term negative entropy:
Let me say first, that if I had been catering for them alone I should have let the discussion turn on free energy instead. It is the more familiar notion in this context. But this highly technical term seemed linguistically too near to energy for making the average reader alive to the contrast between the two things.
This is what is argued to differentiate life from other forms of matter organization. In this direction, although life's dynamics may be argued to go against the tendency of second law, which states that the entropy of an isolated system tends to increase, it does not in any way conflict or invalidate this law, because the principle that entropy can only increase or remain constant applies only to a closed system which is adiabatically isolated, meaning no heat can enter or leave. Whenever a system can exchange either heat or matter with its environment, an entropy decrease of that system is entirely compatible with the second law. The problem of organization in living systems increasing despite the second law is known as the Schrödinger paradox.
In 1964, James Lovelock was among a group of scientists who were requested by NASA to make a theoretical life detection system to look for life on Mars during the upcoming space mission. When thinking about this problem, Lovelock wondered “how can we be sure that Martian life, if any, will reveal itself to tests based on Earth’s lifestyle?” To Lovelock, the basic question was “What is life, and how should it be recognized?” When speaking about this issue with some of his colleagues at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he was asked what he would do to look for life on Mars. To this, Lovelock replied:
I’d look for an entropy reduction, since this must be a general characteristic of life.
Thus, according to Lovelock, to find signs of life, one must look for a “reduction or a reversal of entropy.”



now you know

#2
#3
#4
panop what are some good steam games? i was bored one day and downloaded the program but haven't bought anything
#5
[account deactivated]
#6
thanks. you just owned me hard.
#7
[account deactivated]
#8
Anyway if it is possible to have a scientific definition of life that's really interesting, I don't think any other process causes such a steep entropy reduction in a small area of space as human cognition does.
#9
[account deactivated]
#10

libelous_slander posted:

panop what are some good steam games? i was bored one day and downloaded the program but haven't bought anything



i guess it depends on what games you like and your system specs

team fortress 2 is an FPS that was professionally developed by valve and it's very fun, they changed it to free to play a while ago so give that a go to benchmark your computer

a recent RPG which i was really impressed with is dishonored, it's basically a mix of deus ex's gameplay and arcanum's "steampunk vs magic" setting

wargame: airland battle is a real time tactics game set in the cold war. the singleplayer is bland but multiplayer really shines. it has a steep learning curve because you create a deck of cards outside of games with which to draw reinforements within games. it's very similar to sierra's ground control (which, coincidentally, is also free now http://www.fileplanet.com/156136/150000/fileinfo/Ground-Control-%5BFree-Game%5D )
there is a large goon playerbase (http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3568981) which is currently excited for the upcoming wargame: red dragon, which will add amphibious warfare and improve the user interface

#11
a popular goon pastime in wargame is to create decks with conversation provoking names (these are shown publicly in the lobby prior to play beginning), such as "hiroshima was a warcrime" or "holodomor=myth"

it's believed the thomas friedmanism at the start of this article was inspired by the author playing against goons
http://www.imgism.com/the-games-you-play-reflect-your-politics/
#12

Panopticon posted:

i guess it depends on what games you like and your system specs


here's my rig:

I tried out planetside but it's clearly a moneytrain kinda deal.

#13
planetside is bad because when people abbreviate it to ps i think they are referring to planescape
#14
i hope that, one day, ars technica will ascend to libertarianism, lower their paywall and accept me back as their saviour
#15

Lucille posted:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy_and_life

Later, building on this premise, in the famous 1944 book What is Life?, Nobel-laureate physicist Erwin Schrödinger theorizes that life, contrary to the general tendency dictated by the Second law of thermodynamics, decreases or maintains its entropy by feeding on negative entropy. In his note to Chapter 6 of What is Life?, however, Schrödinger remarks on his usage of the term negative entropy:
Let me say first, that if I had been catering for them alone I should have let the discussion turn on free energy instead. It is the more familiar notion in this context. But this highly technical term seemed linguistically too near to energy for making the average reader alive to the contrast between the two things.
This is what is argued to differentiate life from other forms of matter organization. In this direction, although life's dynamics may be argued to go against the tendency of second law, which states that the entropy of an isolated system tends to increase, it does not in any way conflict or invalidate this law, because the principle that entropy can only increase or remain constant applies only to a closed system which is adiabatically isolated, meaning no heat can enter or leave. Whenever a system can exchange either heat or matter with its environment, an entropy decrease of that system is entirely compatible with the second law. The problem of organization in living systems increasing despite the second law is known as the Schrödinger paradox.
In 1964, James Lovelock was among a group of scientists who were requested by NASA to make a theoretical life detection system to look for life on Mars during the upcoming space mission. When thinking about this problem, Lovelock wondered “how can we be sure that Martian life, if any, will reveal itself to tests based on Earth’s lifestyle?” To Lovelock, the basic question was “What is life, and how should it be recognized?” When speaking about this issue with some of his colleagues at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he was asked what he would do to look for life on Mars. To this, Lovelock replied:
I’d look for an entropy reduction, since this must be a general characteristic of life.
Thus, according to Lovelock, to find signs of life, one must look for a “reduction or a reversal of entropy.”



now you know



me and a friend were having this exact discussion on facebook a couple of weeks ago. the answer is weed

#16
now thats papal
#17
btw once you understand that the production of waste heat is a direct indication of an increase of entropy, youll recognize that all this stuff about humans decreasing entropy, even locally, is pretty much complete nonsense
#18

btw once you understand that the production of waste heat is a direct indication of an increase of entropy, youll recognize that all this stuff about humans decreasing entropy, even locally, is pretty much complete nonsense



humans convert calories to potential energy in sodium channels, proteins and cellular structures, locally decreasing entropy

#19

guest posted:

humans convert calories to potential energy in sodium channels, proteins and cellular structures, locally decreasing entropy



all of which produces a constant internal temperature of 98.6°F

#20
btw calories are already a unit of potential energy. calories from multiple disparate sources and molecular structures (multiple states = low entropy) are converted and reduced to the singular molecule of ATP (single state = high entropy)
#21
a funny quirk in this whole scenario is that, due to the fact that there will always be infinitely more undesirable states than desirable states, the axiom that Entropy always increases is incontrovertible proof of the existence and ultimate victory of Ontological Evil

unless of course you insist that God infusing Creation with the Holy Spirit by sending his Son into the universe invalidates its status as a closed system