THEORY-532: Systems pushed from equilibrium develop structures that degrade the applied gradient faster, and living systems and maturing ecosystems are such structures, continuous with convection cells and vortices, so the second law is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for life

Source

Schneider & Kay (1994), Mathematical and Computer Modelling 19(6–8):25–48, LIT-533, read in full in NOTE-415 from the authors’ formatted text. The typeset version was not seen. NOTE-415 recomputed the ratios in Tables 1–3.

NOTE-415 concludes that “no new THEORY is indicated”, since C1 and C4 “are programmatic and too weakly supported to source one”. This document files the account as Proposed, with that weakness stated.

What was actually shown

The principle. From the Hatsopoulos–Keenan and Kestin result, that an isolated system reaches a unique equilibrium when constraints are removed, the authors propose: “as they are moved away from equilibrium, they will utilize all avenues available to counter the applied gradients. As the applied gradients increase, so does the system’s ability to oppose further movement from equilibrium.” Kestin’s proof gives the local stability of equilibrium. The step to far-from-equilibrium behaviour is not derived (C1, assertion).

Bénard convection. Recalculated from Silveston’s data (silicone oil, 6.98 mm deep), heat transfer rises linearly with ΔT and entropy production and exergy destruction rise nonlinearly. All three jump at the onset of convection (C2, strong for these data). The authors conclude that the principle is “not one of maximum entropy production but rather one of entropy production change being positive semi-definite as you increase the gradient” (C3, from this one system).

A vortex. A bottle drains in about 11 seconds with a vortex and about 6 minutes without.

Life. Life is “another means of dissipating the solar induced gradient”; living systems are “sophisticated mini-tornados, with a memory (its DNA)”. The restated law is “a necessary but not a sufficient condition for life”, and “survival is equally important” (C4, assertion; C5).

Ecosystems. Development should raise energy capture, flow, cycling, trophic depth, respiration, biomass and diversity.

• Crystal River marshes (Table 1). The thermally stressed marsh against its control: biomass −34.7%, imports −18.1%, total throughput −20.7%, food-web cycles 142 → 69. One pair, no replicate (C6, weak).
• Oregon forests (Table 2, Luvall & Holbo). Surface temperature falls from 50.7 °C (quarry) and 51.8 °C (clear-cut) to 24.7 °C in a 400-year Douglas fir stand. The share of incoming radiation degraded rises from 62% to 90% (C7, a correlation). The table’s net-radiation entry for the old stand is inconsistent with its own definition; 90% is 910/1005, and the listed 830 is probably the misprint (NOTE-415).
• Regional budgets (Table 3, Sato et al.). Evapotranspiration takes 70% of net radiation over the Amazon and 2% over the Sahara. A model run replacing rainforest by grassland lowers it from 63% to 48%.

What could have come out otherwise. The stressed marsh could have shown no loss of flow, and the mature forest could have been warmer than the clear-cut. Neither happened. But the physics cases were chosen because structure raises dissipation there, and no counter-case was examined.

What this does not say

• That the restated law is a law. It is a proposal, related to the classical second law by analogy. The paper gives no case where it predicts something the classical law plus the dynamics does not (NOTE-415). Le Chatelier’s principle, cited as an instance, is also a near-equilibrium result.
• That organized structures must raise dissipation. The Bénard cell and the vortex show that they can.
• That ecosystems develop because of the second law. The ecological evidence is correlational. The forests and regions differ in water, canopy and climate as well as maturity, and the authors say evapotranspiration does most of the degrading.
• Where life begins. The one marker the paper allows is “memory”, which lets the process continue “without having to restart” it by chance. That is a line drawn by heredity, not by thermodynamics, and the paper’s own “necessary but not sufficient” says thermodynamics cannot draw it.
• That it avoids nonequilibrium entropy. The variables are meant to be gradients and exergy, but the Bénard analysis computes an entropy production rate.
• What Schrödinger said. The paper presents itself as taking up “the task proposed by Schrödinger”. That reading of him is unchecked; the record holds his book unread.

Connections

• Maximum entropy production (THEORY-671). The paper rejects MEP on the Bénard data. Its own principle does not contradict MEP, though: a system can raise its dissipation as the gradient grows and still sit at the maximum among its possible steady states. So no rivals edge is declared.
• Life forced into existence (THEORY-492). Morowitz and Smith also read the biosphere as a channel for energy flow and also reject entropy-production principles, but put Jaynesian entropy maximization in their place, not a law about gradients. Both use the hurricane as the non-living analogue.
• Dissipative adaptation (THEORY-412) makes the neighbouring claim, that driven matter favours states that absorb and dissipate work, as statistical mechanics.
• Life and planetary MEP (THEORY-517). Kleidon’s argument that life raises the Earth’s entropy production by absorbing more sunlight is the planetary version of the forest comparison here.
• The demarcation question. The candle-flame dispute (LIT-192, NOTE-094) is the one this paper’s tornado and Bénard cell stand in. The record’s account of where the line falls, THEORY-072, puts it at organisational differentiation and says measures of entropy production cannot settle it. This paper’s “necessary but not sufficient” agrees that thermodynamics alone does not draw the line. QUESTION-085 uses the same ladder for a social case.