III. Ecosmos: A Revolutionary Fertile, Habitable, Solar-Bioplanet, Incubator Lifescape

D. Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics of Living Systems

Layzer, David. Cosmogenesis. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. The Harvard astrophysicist provides theoretical insights into how an expanding universe can offset the second law by its generation of hierarchical order and information.

Lineweaver, Charles and Charles Egan. Life, Gravity and the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Physics of Life Reviews. 5/4, 2008. In this online journal, Australian astrophysicists contend that cosmic “gravitational collapse” is the driving source of free energy for evolving life. A “pyramid” thus accrues from baryon non-conservation to ‘heterotrophs’ (multicellular organisms) whose latest sapient human phase can trace such ancestry.

All dissipative structures in the universe including all forms of life, owe their existence to the fact that the universe started in a low entropy state and has not yet reached equilibrium. The low initial entropy was due to the low gravitational entropy of the nearly homogeneously distributed matter and has, through gravitational collapse, evolved gradients in density, temperature, pressure and chemistry. These gradients, when steep enough, give rise to far from equilibrium dissipative structures (e.g., galaxies, stars, black holes, hurricanes and life) which emerge spontaneously to hasten the destruction of the gradients which spawned them. (Abstract)

Lineweaver, Charles, et al, eds. Complexity and the Arrow of Time. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Leading thinkers such as Paul Davies, Eric Chaisson, Seth Lloyd, Simon Conway Morris, David Krakauer, and Philip Clayton, explore nature’s evident propensity from universe to humankind to become more intricately arranged, organic, and cognizant. Its main sections cover Cosmological, Physical, Biological, Evolutionary, Informational, and Philosophical perspectives. Search each name above, especially Chaisson, for more commentary.

Luppi, Andrea, et al. Information decomposition reveals hidden high-order contributions to temporal irreversibility. . Cambridge University, University of Sussex, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Oxford University, and Imperial College London, London theorists including Gustavo Deco and Fernando
Rosas provide a latest 2020s sophisticated definition for a directionality to the passage of life and ecosmic duration

Temporal irreversibility, often referred to as the arrow of time, is a fundamental concept in statistical mechanics. Markers of irreversibility also provide a powerful characterisation of information processing in biological systems. Here we propose a theoretic framework for the arrow of time in a multivariate series, which yields different types of irreversible information dynamics. We identify an irreversibility in the hyperactive regime of a biophysical model of brain dynamics, showing that our view is both theoretically principled and empirically useful. (Excerpt)

Ma, Tian and Shouhong Wang. Phase Transition Dynamics. Berlin: Springer, 2014. Sichuan University and Indiana University mathematicians draw upon statistical physics to formulate an innovative thermodynamic theory for equilibrium and nonequilibrium phenomena. With a view that natural systems are situated and poised in an active fluidity, these theories are effectively applied to Geophysical and Climate Dynamics such as El Nino oceanic and atmospheric circulation, and Dynamic Transition in Chemistry and Biology with regard to bacterial chemotaxis and speciations.

Mahulikar, Shripad and Priti Kumari. Scale-Invariant Entropy-Based Theory for Dynamic Ordering. Chaos. 24/033120, 2014. As the quotes explain, Indian Institute of Technology senior researchers propose this conceptual basis to explain how life naturally arises and self-emerges into consistent forms and viabilities. By way of sophisticated mathematics another window is opened upon the innate developmental essence of a holistic, habitable universe.

Dynamically Ordered self-organized dissipative structure exists in various forms and at different scales. This investigation first introduces the concept of an isolated embedding system, which embeds an open system, e.g., dissipative structure and its mass and/or energy exchange with its surroundings. Thereafter, scale-invariant theoretical analysis is presented using thermodynamic principles for Order creation, existence, and destruction. The sustainability criterion for Order existence based on its structured mass and/or energy interactions with the surroundings is mathematically defined. This criterion forms the basis for the interrelationship of physical parameters during sustained existence of dynamic Order. It is shown that the sufficient condition for dynamic Order existence is approached if its sustainability criterion is met, i.e., its destruction path is blocked. This scale-invariant approach has the potential to unify the physical understanding of universal dynamic ordering based on entropy considerations. (Abstract)

Dynamically ordered self-organized dissipative structures, e.g., convection cells, hurricanes, living systems, ecosystems, and accretion disks around black holes, are not just systems with low disorder. In spite of the validity of the Entropy Principle, they possess a low specific entropy relative to their immediate surroundings. In contrast, static order, e.g., crystals are created in the vicinity of global equilibrium based on the minimization of free energy, which follows from Prigogine’s theorem of minimum entropy production. Self-organization is a fundamental process of living organisms at all hierarchical levels, from molecule to organ. An expanded view of non-equilibrium thermodynamics led to the understanding that the spontaneous production and existence of dynamic Order are the expected consequences of basic physical laws. Life is a subset of the general class of dissipative structures. (1)

Ecosystems self-organize by degrading the incoming solar radiation in to lower quality exergy, by lowering the reradiated temperatures. The more developed the ecosystem, the colder its surface temperature, i.e., the more degraded its reradiated energy. Ecosystems develop hierarchical far-from equilibrium patterns and functions, whose maintenance requires a continuous flow of resources. Living cells are dissipative, open, and far-from-equilibrium systems that lower their entropy by an influx of energy and molecular material in a multi-compartment structure, with specific functional characteristics. Heat is dissipated, and waste products are excreted by the cell so that excess entropy in the environment is balanced by structure and information generation, thereby lowering the cell’s entropy. (4)

Manzano, Gonzalo, et al. Thermodynamics of Computations with Absolute Irreversibility, Unidirectional Transitions, and Stochastic Computation Times. Physical Review X. 14/021026, 2024. Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Physics and Complex Systems (IFISC) UIB-CSIC, Mallorca, University of Colorado, Boulder, and Santa Fe Institute theorists including David Wolpert scope out a highly technical exercise on the way to a working affinity between energetic phenomena and generic algorithm-like programs.

Developing a thermodynamic theory of computation at the interface of nonequilibrium thermodynamics and computer science requires dealing with stochastic halting times, unidirectional transitions, and restricted initial conditions. Here, we present an approach extends nonequilibrium thermodynamics to generic Markovian processes. We illustrate our results with numerical simulations of finite automata processing bit strings, a fundamental model from theoretical computer science. We also provide universal equalities and inequalities for the probability of words by a finite automaton in terms of thermodynamic quantities. Our results, while motivated from the computational context, are applicable more broadly. (Excerpt)

Marletto, Chiara. Constructor Theory of Thermodynamics. arXiv:1608.02625. This latest contribution by the Oxford University mathematician is based upon applications of the Constructor Theory of Information conceived by the physicist David Deutsch, in collaboration with Marletto. Their original posting is at 1405.5563, with later entries by CM about Life at 1407.0681, and Probability at 1507.03287. The paper expands this informational physics to resolve residual technical issues as the field advances into the 21st century. Search Chiara for a new paper with Sara Walker as Accommodating Observers in Fundamental Physics.

The laws of thermodynamics, powerful for countless purposes, are not exact: both their phenomenological and their statistical-mechanical versions are valid only at 'macroscopic scales', which are never defined. Here I propose a new, exact and scale-independent formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, using the principles and tools of the recently proposed constructor theory. Specifically, I improve upon the axiomatic formulations of thermodynamics by proposing an exact and more general formulation of 'adiabatic accessibility'. This work provides an exact distinction between work and heat; it reveals an unexpected connection between information theory and the first law of thermodynamics (not just the second); it resolves the clash between the irreversibility of the 'cycle'-based second law and time-reversal symmetric dynamical laws. It also achieves the long-sought unification of the axiomatic version of the second law with Kelvin's. (Abstract)

Marsland III, Robert and Jeremy England. Limits of Predictions in Thermodynamic Systems: A Review. arXiv:1707.06680. Boston University and MIT physicists blaze these theoretical frontiers of our human encounters with natural creative energies – how can they be properly quantified, what do they mean with regard to what kind of universe and our own agency and avail. See also Speed, Strength and Dissipation in Biological Self-Assembly by the authors at 1711.02172.

The past twenty years have seen a resurgence of interest in nonequilibrium thermodynamics, thanks to advances in the theory of stochastic processes and in their thermodynamic interpretation. Fluctuation theorems provide fundamental constraints on the dynamics of systems arbitrarily far from thermal equilibrium. But these general results carry their own limitations: fluctuation theorems involve exponential averages that can depend sensitively on unobservably rare trajectories; steady-state thermodynamics makes use of a dual dynamics that lacks any direct physical interpretation. This review aims to present these central results of contemporary nonequilibrium thermodynamics in such a way that the power of each claim for making physical predictions can be clearly assessed, using examples from current topics in soft matter and biophysics. (Abstract)

The past twenty years have seen a resurgence of interest in nonequilibrium thermodynamics, based on advances in the theory of stochastic processes and in their thermodynamic analysis. Stochastic Thermodynamics has matured into a systematic theory of nonequilibrium processes, in which the analogies to thermal equilibrium that Prigogine and others were searching for can be mathematically defined. But these general results carry their own limits: far from equilibrium, they demand precise knowledge of the probability distributions of the relevant quantities, which are often experimentally inaccessible, or they invoke a “dual” dynamics that lacks any direct physical interpretation. This review aims to present a selection of central results from contemporary nonequilibrium thermodynamics in such a way that the power of each claim for making physical predictions can be clearly assessed. (1)

Matsoukas, Themis. Thermodynamics Beyond Molecules: Statistical Thermodynamics of Probability Distributions. Entropy. 21/9, 2019. The Penn State chemical engineering professor and author of Generalized Statistical Thermodynamics (Springer, 2018) describes a variational calculus which can lead to mathematical network relationships. A statistical mechanics thus accrues via a foray into information theories and Bayesian inference.

McKelvey, Bill. Toward a 0th Law of Thermodynamics: Order-Creation Complexity Dynamics from Physics and Biology to Bioeconomics. Journal of Bioeconomics. 6/1, 2004. To move beyond the 19th century machine theories of energy and entropy we need an expanded thermodynamics to express an inherently self-organizing evolution of life and its human phase. An array of scientists from Prigogine, Kauffman, Haken, Kelso, Salthe, Gell-Mann and others are joined to express the rise of order by the energetic interaction of autonomous agents in complex adaptive systems. These creative processes are at work prior to selection and for this reason McKelvey calls for an original “0th Law” instead of the “4th Law” often cited in this effort.

Darwinian natural selection is the traditional way of explaining how order appears out of the primordial soup – the selectionist explanation in biology and the one imported into bioeconomics. A more recent view from biology is that self-organization – pre 1st Law processes – explains more order in the biosphere that Darwinian selection – the view of the so-called self-organization biologist. (72)

Morel, Richard and George Fleck. A Fourth Law of Thermodynamics. Khimiya. 15/4, 2006. This online journal is a good instance of the worldwide accessible reach of humankind’s collective knowledge project. Its formal name is Chemistry: Bulgarian Journal of Science Education, and is published by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Science, Google title above to reach. Emeritus Smith College, (Northampton, MA) professors of chemistry contribute to the welling witness and articulation that an alternative impetus for life via far-from-equilibrium, open system, thermal energies exists counter to the equilibrium entropy trap of closed systems. See many other citations in this section for much evidence. A 2012 working paper “Transcendental Thermodynamics,” in the spirit of Ralph Waldo Emerson, written by the authors for the Kahn Liberal Arts Institute at Smith, further evinces this vision. Google this title to access or https://dspace.smith.edu/handle/11020/23895.

The Fourth Law provides a broadly applicable new paradigm that is especially important for biological investigations, from molecular to organismic and evolutionary levels. Life forms are, after all, dissipative structures that have the capacity to store and use information about themselves and to maximize entropic production by natural selection of the most entropically expedient forms. If we could observe the beginnings of extraterrestrial life we could predict, given long-term persistence of a generally supportive environment, that cells would probably evolve, that multicellularity would probably evolve, and that communities of organisms (ecosystems) would develop. Since every adaptive feature in a biological system can be described as an increased capacity to create entropy or as being better at making more individuals that are good at making entropy, we could predict features that would be a characteristic of life forms in any far-from-equilibrium system. We also note that the Fourth Law predicts a tendency toward the evolution of intelligent species on planets capable of supporting life, since intelligent species transcend purely metabolic means of increasing entropy. (309)

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