(December 30, 2017 at 11:43 am)Agnosty Wrote:(December 27, 2017 at 11:00 pm)Fireball Wrote: Life is an ordering of matter on a local scale. In the process of life making life, the net entropy of the universe increases more.
(December 28, 2017 at 7:52 am)Cyberman Wrote: Locally, at the cost of increasing entropy somewhere else. Such as the big hydrogen/helium reactor in the sky.
Hi y'all! I was wondering if you could explain more about life increasing entropy. Cyberman, your statement could be interpreted that the decrease in entropy is balanced by an increase somewhere else while Fireball seems to be claiming that life increases the entropy of the whole universe. Which is right?
The two statements are not in conflict. Entropy can and does decrease on a local scale, at the expense of an overall increase in the total entropy in the closed system of the Universe. Our local star system is not a closed system; our sun provides more than enough energy for life to arise and flourish, as it were combatting entropy, at the cost of depleting its own energy. But every action lifeforms take, even thinking, dissipates into heat energy and, on a relatively microscopic level, furthers the heat death of the Universe. Remember though that we're talking quite astonishingly tiny effects here, in the grand scope of things. Remember also that I am not an astrophysicist; everything I say on the subject is gleaned from what I've picked up over the years and I expect, even encourage, others more learned in the field to eviscerate my words. That's how we learn.
(December 30, 2017 at 11:43 am)Agnosty Wrote: Does life accelerate the decay of the universe? If so, what is the mechanism for that?
Or does the organization that is life come at the balancing cost of disorganization? If so, why is that necessary? It's hard for me to picture that, because I organized some words on a screen, some aspect of the universe suddenly and obediently fell apart (apologies to any civilizations suffering abrupt bridge collapses lol). And I know from regular experience that cleaning the house doesn't make it dirtier. Order creating disorder isn't very intuitive to me.
The Earth going around the Sun isn't very intuitive either. Intuition is a great way to be wrong and still remain blissful about it.
Reductio ad absurdum doesn't get you very far, either.
(December 30, 2017 at 11:43 am)Agnosty Wrote:(December 28, 2017 at 7:52 am)Cyberman Wrote: Also, which god are we talking about? How did it do these things?
How do we issue the commands to tell our fingers to type? Is it the result of a kind of code programmed by happenstance into the universe that is mindlessly followed, like a machine, that generates the decisions we think we make? If so, then why are we needed to be conscious just to helplessly watch the show? And how does mindless code-following generate consciousness? What evolutionary advantage would conscious code-following have over the robotic code-followers? What use would consciousness have if decisions were predetermined? Why would something evolve with so much refinement, yet have no interaction with reality?
Alternatively, do we have free will? What is that? Where did it come from, what is it made of, and how does it work?
Neither does grafting a non sequitur onto a red herring. We're not talking about autonomic control of our bodies, we were discussing gods. If you want to suggest that the two things are similar, be my guest. Just bear in mind that you then forfeit all option to claim a supernatural god.
(December 30, 2017 at 11:43 am)Agnosty Wrote: If we can't even know how we do things, is it reasonable to ask how a god-like thing operates?
It's more than reasonable - it's required, since you are positing the existence of such an entity operating in such a way. Yours is the onus to support the assertion.
(December 30, 2017 at 11:43 am)Agnosty Wrote: Maybe, at best, the existence of a god can be inferred... like dark matter.
Maybe. How do you suggest we set about validating that inference?
(December 30, 2017 at 11:43 am)Agnosty Wrote: Then again, we've been inferring for millennia in lieu of better explanations at the time.
I suspect you don't understand the significance of inference in a scientific context. Hint: it doesn't mean making stuff up and leaving it at that.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'