RICCE, 2023 Vol. ꢀ Nro ꢀ: XX https://dꢁi.ꢁꢂg/ 1ꢃ.48168/RICCE.v1n1p11

ꢄꢅꢅꢆꢇ://ꢂevistas.uꢈasaꢈꢈe.edu.pe/ꢂicce

la oposición entRe el aumento

de la entRopía y la geneRación de

una complejidad cReciente puede

aboRdaRse desde una peRspectiva

infoRmacional

The opposition between entropy increases and

the generation of increasing complexity can be

approached from an informational perspective

Eugenio Andrade

Department of Humanities at Universidad El Bosque. Bogotá

Department of Biology at Universidad Nacional de Colombia

landradep@unbosque.edu.co/ leandradep@unal.edu.co

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0133-5251

Recepción: 12-02-2023

Aceptación: 01-06--2023

Abstract

This paper deals with the discussion between two points of view justiﬁed by

thermodynamics, the tendency to increase entropy, given by the second law, and the

tendency towards increases in complexity, given by the tentative fourth law. I argue these

twoperspectivescanbereconciledfromtheperspectiveofinformationprocessingsystems.

I discuss how living systems counteract entropy through stored chemical free-energy,

which is used for generating structural or informational constraints. Taking cellular and

ecological systems as models of open far from equilibrium systems, the formulation of a

tentative fourth law of thermodynamics is examined. The second and the tentative fourth

laws of thermodynamics explain why the propensity to approach a state of equilibrium

with respect to local restrictions promotes further impositions of structural constraints

that enhances its distancing from equilibrium at a global scale.

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In consequence, while a complete equilibration of the universe will never be attained,

the trend towards increasing complexity expresses with growing intensity, hence,

cosmic evolution and the evolution of life on earth can be understood as the outcome

of two antagonistic and complementary tendencies, ﬁrst, towards the dissipation of

energy gradients, generating complex organizations, and second, to the degradation of

these organizations when no energy ﬂows are available. Therefore, information from the

prospectiveoftheprocessingsystemsdecreasetheiruncertaintyabouttheirsurroundings,

enabling them, to select following functional criteria one among the immense accessible

trajectories that, by canalizing energy ﬂows maximizes its conversion into chemical energy

that is invested in building and sustaining increasingly complex structures.

Keywords: Information, Structural constraints, Tentative fourth law, Complexity

Resumen

Esteartículoabordaladiscusiónentredospuntosdevistajustiﬁcadosporlatermodinámica,

la tendencia al aumento de la entropía, dada por la segunda ley, y la tendencia al aumento

de la complejidad, dada por la tentativa cuarta ley. Argumento que estos dos puntos de

vista pueden conciliarse desde la perspectiva de los sistemas de procesamiento de la

información. Analizo cómo los sistemas vivos contrarrestan la entropía mediante la

energía química libre almacenada, que se utiliza para generar restricciones estructurales

o informativas. Tomando los sistemas celulares y ecológicos como modelos de sistemas

abiertos alejados del equilibrio, se examina la formulación de una cuarta ley tentativa de

la termodinámica. La segunda y la cuarta ley tentativa de la termodinámica explican por

qué la propensión a acercarse a un estado de equilibrio con respecto a las restricciones

locales promueve nuevas imposiciones de restricciones estructurales que potencian su

alejamiento del equilibrio a escala global.

En consecuencia, si bien nunca se alcanzará un equilibrio completo del universo, la

tendencia hacia una complejidad creciente se expresa con intensidad cada vez mayor,

de ahí que la evolución cósmica y la evolución de la vida en la Tierra puedan entenderse

como el resultado de dos tendencias antagónicas y complementarias, en primer lugar,

hacia la disipación de gradientes de energía, generando organizaciones complejas, y en

segundo lugar, hacia la degradación de estas organizaciones cuando no se dispone de

ﬂujos de energía. Por tanto, la información perspectiva de los sistemas procesadores de

información disminuye su incertidumbre sobre el entorno, permitiéndoles, siguiendo

criterios funcionales, seleccionar una entre las inmensas trayectorias accesibles que,

canalizando los ﬂujos energéticos maximice su conversión en energía química que se

invierte en construir y sostener estructuras cada vez más complejas.

Palabras clave: Información, Restricciones estructurales, Cuarta ley tentativa, Complejidad

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. introduCCión EnErgy and EpigEnEtiC landsCapEs

In biology, Waddington [i] showed that unstable high totipotent cells shift to more

stable diﬀerentiated cells, as illustrated by the metaphor of epigenetic landscapes (EL).

A passage from high potency unstable states to lower energy more stable states that

according to Simondon1 [ii] requires a transducer, exempliﬁed by continuous electric

relay that operates as a modulable resistance between a potential energy and its concrete

mode of actualization through time. The transducer, works as the mediator between the

unstable high free-energy domain to the concrete realized entities with lower free-energy

content. In this case the transducer would be the cell itself, undergoing diﬀerentiation that

modulates the steepness of the EL and smooths the energy barriers that open the way down

the canalized pathways. The discharge of energy from a ﬁeld of potetialities is modulated

all the way, till it reaches a metastable state, thus it is irreversible and so requires time.

The potential is represented as the diﬀerences of height between the peak and any region

located in a valley, though the dynamics of this irreversible process is modulated by the

changing topography of the EL.

This a process that does not only runs downhill as energy gradients breakdown, reaching

metastable states, but as more energy is captured by the transducers or processing

information systems, it can also run uphill towards potentiation. In this processual

viewpoint what matters is not only the deﬁnition of the states that are in fact attained,

but mostly how they came to be, and the potential future that is enabled, because

the process of energy transformation never ends. Time plays a decisive role since not

all potential energy can be discharged and transformed into realized concrete forms

at the same time. Information processing involves both a decrease of the potential

as it crystalizes into concrete ordered forms (actualization), yet there are no stable

organized structures, but dynamic transient organizations in permanent tension.

Information processing like transduction is mediated by the very same entities that

develop and evolve by means of establishing new types of interactions between their own

disparate constitutive parts and between them and other entities undergoing similar

processes of morphogenesis.

1

Transduction is Gilbert Simondon’s key concept for understanding processes of diﬀerentiation and of individuation in several

ﬁelds, including scientiﬁc disciplines, social and human sciences, technological devices, and artistic domains. Originating in the

sciences and crucially developed in its philosophical implications by Simondon, transduction refers to a dynamic operation by

which energy is actualised, moving from one state to the next, in a process that individuates new materialities.

Paulo de Assis (2018).

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The topology of the surface of epigenetic and energy landscapes curves, creating folds

that open up new paths. The existence of a real potential or virtual reality is fundamental

since it provides the possibility of becoming, by shifting phases from one state to the

next. “An organism is always more than its organized and fully diﬀerentiated reality. This

excess signal a virtual reality that can be observed at the embryonic stage” (Beistegui

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012, 170) [iii].

All throughout the discussions that follow below, energy transformations are illustrated

with the image of an energy landscape, a tridimensional model that associates possible

states with their free-energy content (Figure 1). The higher the free-energy, the more

numbered, short lived and unstable conformations exist for a given entity, conversely,

the lower the free-energy, the more reduced the number of states that can be attained

and the more stable they are. Thus, peaks in the landscape stand for high energy levels

populated by a number of highly unstable states, and valleys stand for low energy levels

populated by a reduced number of stable states. The landscape also helps to illustrate the

energy barriers that have to be surmounted by a given structure in order to pass from one

state to another. It is also postulated that there is a spontaneous tendency to pass from

unstable to stable states, that is visualized as a transition from potency to act (realized

in concrete metastable structures), that requires an increment of entropy by reduction

of a free-energy gradient. Thence, entropy increases as free-energy landscape tends to

ﬂatten. Moreover, the free-energy landscape representation serves also to illustrate that

if energy is available in the surroundings, detected and harvested, a multiplicity of many

diﬀerent systems acting simultaneously can catch it up, and the net accumulative eﬀect

will show up as new arising peaks.

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. information is thE morphogEnEtiC prinCiplE of naturE

Organisms are thermodynamic systems best suited to model energy transformations.

This proposal appears in several authors such as Prigogine and Stengers [iv], Brooks and

Wiley [v], Swenson [vi], Chaisson [v] Schneider and Kay [viii], Schneider and Sagan [ix],

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among others. In these models, living systems are explained as integrated “totalities” ,

though structurally constrained and plastic enough to functionally couple with their

environment in order to capture energy ﬂows, for further conversion, storage and

eﬃcient use. Therefore, living systems can be explained by resorting to thermodynamic

notions such as entropy, self-organization, density of energy ﬂow and restrictions.

However, in addition to thermodynamics, an integrated informational approach from

the prospective of the living systems is needed. Information will be approached as that

which drives the passage from potentiality to forms (actualized information) and the

reverse from actualities to emerging new potencies that enable new more complex

organizations.

2

“Kantian wholes” according to Kauﬀman.

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These dynamics can be understood as being regulated by an informational transaction

between opposite tendencies expressed in the second law (energy gradient equilibration

and structural decay), and, the tentative fourth law of thermodynamics (emergence of

more complex organizations that enable new possibilities). Clearly, I am not making a

conventional use of the notion of information, in the sense of Shannon as a measure of

ignorance or entropy by an external observer in order to specify one message among all

the diﬀerent probable messages that can be emitted by a given source. Instead, I stress

the information gain that ensues when an agent is prompted to choose between at least

two alternative responses [x], information that is used by the processing agent to detect

accessible energy gradients.

Self-organization is the outcome of energy ﬂows that are made accessible by information

processing. Dissipative structure is a term deﬁned by Prigogine and Stengers, in order to

designate the organized patterns visualized in chemical reactions far from equilibrium.

The study of chemical reactions like Belousov-Zhabotinski in which the concentration

of the chemical involved were measured during a certain time, showed the existence of

bifurcations in the trajectories at points of high instability. Self-organization requires

an intense and permanent ﬂow of energy and matter under conditions of openness

and non-equilibrium, which spontaneously crystallizes into a speciﬁc structural

arrangement. The emerging system adopts a structure that stabilizes between the

thermal thresholds deﬁned by the conditions to which the system is subjected. As energy

ﬂows intensify, systems move further away from equilibrium, reaching unstable critical

points where one of at least two diﬀerent accessible alternative conformations turns up.

Unstable critical points lead to bifurcations that allow access to new contingent and

unpredictable conﬁgurations. Energy ﬂows enable self-organization, but do not specify

the type of organization generated. The speciﬁc form that a system takes depends on the

restrictions adopted in its strivings to maintain a local organization that is functional

ﬁt with the environment. Restrictions that are exerted upon the lower levels, make them

more prone to harvest energy from accesible gradients.

To talk about energy gradients means that there is a free-energy budget diﬀerence between

the states of high potential “source” and a low potential “sink”. Any living systems as it

breaks down the chemical bonds of carbohydrates, glucogen and lipids (chemical stored

energy), its internal entropy lowers because of the gain in realized structural organization

by means of high chemical energy ﬂow (metabolism). The supply of high potential energy

that can be converted or stored into new structural arangements, is asured as long as

energy gradients are accesed and captured. There is a choice at each unstable critical point

that reduces the uncertainty that the living system faces, as it progresses toward more

stable states of minimal entropy. At this bifurcation point, whenever any system chooses

between two equally likely alternatives, the world gains a bit of structural information. In

other words, information processing guides the choice of route from potential (unbound

energy) to actual deﬁnite forms (stored energy). The permanent reorientation of energy

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ﬂows involves a diversity of agents that interact in a speciﬁc environment, trying to deﬁne

the structural adjustments and actions to be carried out.

In accord to the above guidelines, an integrated notion of information should address the

intrinsic potentiality of nature, which would be to generate and propagate a maximum

diversity of organized forms, by means of interactions that generate an increasingly dense

network of systems that permanently enhance the potential (vitality) of nature. Actualized

information refers to the organizations currently existing in the present, which at the same

time constitutes a growing potential of what may be in the future. The imprints of the

past are incorporated in existing structures (i.e. evolutionary ancestral body plan) that

enable an unforeseen future. The future exists virtually as an immeasurable potential for

a multitude of yet undeﬁned events, whose actualization results from the informational

transactions that are taking place at the present. In other words, the forms that are possible

and accessible in the immediate future are being hatched through successive transactions

and sustained feedbacks from the micro to the macro and vice versa, giving rise to a reality

plenty of unanticipated situations.

Thus, informational processes meet conﬂict since entities, in greater or lesser degree of

individuation, face the possibilities of being destroyed and absorbed by the lower levels

of organizations, or the opposite, to get integrated into higher order wholes. Following

Lupasco [xi], when a particular state is achieved or actualized, an opposite state is

potentialized alternately and reciprocally, given that none reaches the total presence or

absence. Thus, it is installed a tension between potencies that tend to be actualized, and

actualized forms that tend to be potentiated.

Information processing must be understood as the modulating factor between these two

opposing tendencies, an irreversible tendency towards thermal equilibrium or increasing

entropy, manifested as ﬂattening of energy gradients (thermal death), and a tendency

towards increasing complexity, self-organization and higher distancing from thermal

equilibrium. Information guides processes toward the production of a diversity of more

or less stable individualized systems within every level of organization (actualization of

a potential), but also enables new dynamics and interactions that lead to the emergence

of more complex levels of organization (potentiation of actualities). In biology, we have

that information processing is not limited to the production of individualized forms along

ontogenies following the genetic instructions encoded in DNA, but, also to their integration

at microbial, cellular, multicellular, organismic, communal and ecosystemic scales. In

consequence, information expresses the transactions between these antagonistic drives,

as it is processed by organized systems that permanently adjust and interact.

Therefore, evolutionary processes exhibit two seemingly opposite tendencies: 1) the

emergence of more complex forms, and 2) the individuation, stabilization and eventual

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decay of these forms. Forms are individualized and integrated with each other by

generating more complex organizations and as they stabilize and diversify. Accordingly,

Darwinian evolution by natural selection favors individuals that interact in order generate

new types of symbiotic associations, ontogenies and ways of coupling to the surrounding

environment. Each emergency enables new types of interactions between previously

individualized forms, expanding the world of what is possible and so giving rise in due

time to new forms that become new niches for other possible living systems. These

evolutionary logic shows the reciprocity of the part/whole relationship. Existing forms

conﬁgure and modify the environment that made them possible through the very actions

they implement, so that parts and wholes are intimately associated.

Parts incorporate information of the whole that contains them, while the whole is modiﬁed

by the parts that make it up, thus, the whole contributes to its own transformation by

constraining its constitutive components.

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. thE tEnsion bEtwEEn spontanEous sElf-organization and

thE inCrEasE of Entropy.

Strictly speaking, the increase in entropy refers to the degradation of the available energy

gradients that can be illustrated as a current of water ﬂowing downstream along a path

that bifurcates to attain more stable sates. However, this current can also ﬂow up hill to

reach higher potency that will be further actualized in a diversity of stable states. The way

down to metastable states is accounted by the second law, while the way up to unstable

states is accounted by the tentative fourth law [xii]. (Table 1)

From Boltzmann´s mechanical-statistical interpretation of the second law, entropy is

the spontaneous tendency of organized systems to disintegrate into their components,

increasing molecular disorder. But the important thing is to understand that any

organization depends on the net energy ﬂow-through. When systems are in conditions

of openness and interaction with others, they can cling to accessible sources of energy,

resulting in a growing organization, but when they approach to isolation and closure, the

energy ﬂow through decreases and systems equilibrate. Displacements toward the state

of equilibrium take place with respect to the environment formed by the less complex

entities that allowed its emergency, so that when the organization decays, its components

breakdown and are absorbed by the lower levels, so that the state of maximum molecular

disorder cannot be attained. The hypothetical thermal death of the universe is an

extrapolation of thermal process occurring in condition of isolation and adiabatic closure.

Research on how to maximize energy that can be extracted from a combustion machine

led to the formulation of the second law by Rudolf Clausius. Prior research by Sadí Carnot

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had established that for an ideal machine, isolated from heat ﬂuxes and without friction,

minimizing entropy dissipation would optimize the eﬃciency of energy conversion into

mechanical work. A machine would have 100% eﬃciency only in the ideal case where it did

not give up heat to the environment. Therefore, eﬃciency was deﬁned as the proportion

between the amount of net work performed over the heat transferred that depends on the

thermal gradient in which it operates, i.e., for steam engines, maximum eﬃciencies are

low (<< 40%) because heat waste is considerable.

The ideal thermal machine was thought of as a closed (adiabatic) mechanical system

that imposes restrictions on gas expansion so that it is driven to push a non-friction

plunger, operating on a thermal gradient, maintained by the chemical energy released

in the combustion. Combustion releases the chemical energy stored in the carbon

bonds characteristic of hydrocarbons, in a long biogeochemical process. This release

requires atmospheric oxygen that was generated by water hydrolysis as a byproduct

of photosynthetic activity carried out by bacteria for thousands of millions of years.

Decontextualizing the steam machine of the geobiological history responsible for carbon

ﬁxation and the production of oxygen has made us to forget the importance of processes of

chemical energy storage. The Industrial Revolution was made possible by the combustion

machine, and it generated a strong dependence on non-renewable fossil fuels, the capture

of which has served as an excuse for countless wars motivated by the desire to control

energy sources. If we compete ﬁercely for increasingly scarce resources in a Darwinian

way, fatalism associated with entropy (shortage of available energy) becomes evident and

threatening.

But this hopelessness is relieved when we model systems that are far from equilibrium,

where ﬂows of matter and energy are so widely distributed that they are reinforced to

generate “dissipative structures”, or stationary states that are located in compartments

that temporally stabilized the organized structure. Out of the whole solar energy entering

the system, a great part dissipates as heat into the environment, but a minimal part is used

to maintain the organization of photosynthetic bacteria, making them more steadfast to

capture the available energy with more eﬃciency and so on in a positive unharnessed

autocatalytic process.

Processes of self-organization, to the extent that are positively reinforced, allow the

growth and propagation of the organized systems, but they can also lead to an exhaustion

of the primary chemical sources, and reach a point where the system breaks down. For

this reason, energy gradients are consumed in building up structures that act as energy

barriers that prevent the diﬀusion of catalysts and the depletion of primary resources.

For example, catalytic cycles of self-reinforcing reactions, such as those devised by

Manfred Eigen [xiii], and the self-catalytic ensembles postulated by Stuart Kauﬀman

[

xiv] to explain the origin of organic life, are helpful; but it is also essential to consider the

formation of internal compartments, by means of membranes that prevent the diﬀusion

of catalysts, needed for the eﬃcient use of energy.

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The idea that irreversible processes lead to entropy increases that tend to a thermal

death, would not have prevailed if the study of energy transfers had been based on the

study on energy ﬂows through cells and ecosystems, instead of the combustion machines.

th

Unfortunately, this research program was not interesting in the XIX century, when the

Industrial Revolution was on the fast track towards industrialization and the ensuing

mechanization of productive processes. The inexorable thermal death predicted by the

second law was questioned by James C. Maxwell, when he stated the following paradox.

If a hypothetical being or “demon” located within a chamber at constant volume and

pressure could gather information about the position and speed of individual molecules

and, if it could use this information to control their passage between two compartments,

it would achieve the separation of fast (hot) molecules from slow (cold) molecules into

diﬀerent compartments. The point to remark here is that for Maxwell, if informational

restrictions are imposed upon the free diﬀusion of molecules, an orderly system is

generated in apparent opposition to the stipulations of the second law. Brieﬂy, the point

to stress is that Maxwell anticipated a general scheme that connects information with

constraint enforcement and the ensuing generation of order. The paradoxical point was

that in conditions of adiabatic isolation and closure the energy invested in building up

the restrictions would not be available.

Joseph Kestin [xv] formulated a uniﬁed principle of thermodynamics according to which,

when the constraints that act upon an isolated system located some distance from

equilibrium, are eliminated one by one, it reaches a single state of equilibrium that is

independent of the order in which constraints are removed. For instance, in a process of

diﬀusion of gases at constant volume, the average length of the paths that can be traveled

by individual molecules as they approach equilibrium, decreases as the occupied places

restricts their diﬀusion. Thus, as entropy increases, the tendency to expand and the

propensity to change decreases. In the case of the container box of particles that move

at random (modeled by Boltzmann as an equilibrium state of maximum entropy), the

loss of usable energy is due to molecular diﬀusion in all possible directions.

Josiah Willard Gibbs (1870), following Kelvin, deﬁned free-energy, or enthalpy, as a

thermodynamic potential, that is, an extensive state function with energy units that

measures the amount of usable energy to perform a work. The change in free-energy is

deﬁned as ΔF = ΔE - TΔS, a formula that divides the energy content of a system into two

components: on the one hand, energy available to perform work (E), and on the other,

entropy (S) or energy not available to perform work. Noteworthy, the contribution of the

entropic term tends to zero as the absolute temperature decreases. The change in Gibbs

free-energy provides useful information about the spontaneity of a chemical reaction,

though it cannot be applied to individual molecules. However, biochemists have shown

that within the cells, energy is stored in the chemical bonds of the organic molecules

(

sugars, carbohydrates, lipids, etc.). and the molecules of ATP (adenosine tri-phosphate)

are known as the energy currency of the cells.

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Erwin Schrödinger [xvi] investigated how organisms are not aﬀected by the entropy

that they must generate in order to live, a concern that led him to assert that to stay

away from thermal equilibrium (to grow, to develop and to reproduce) they must capture

negentropy (negative entropy), that is energy stored in the chemical bonds of organic

matter. In fact, living beings are poised at a stationary state sustained by an intensive

ongoing anabolic and catabolic processes. Organisms are thus, characterized as systems

that do not equilibrate with their environment, since they are organized in such a way

that they capture, transform, and use all available forms of energy to reach far from

equilibrium states.

Furthermore, the study of cellular processes of storage and management of energy

reserves, allowed Collin McClare [xvii] to distinguish between stored energy (high quality

energy) and equilibrium energy (entropy)3 . The ﬁrst is an energy stored chemically in

cell compartments that is readily available to perform the work needed to remain in non-

equilibrium distribution, for instance, in active molecules the states of higher energy

in outer electronic orbits are more populated than those of lower energy. The second,

thermal energy, mostly represented by molecular vibrations that equilibrate between

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0 to 10 seconds, though usable “slowly” with moderate eﬃciency, it inevitably ends

up being thermally equilibrated with the environment, and thus, achieves a temperature-

dependent Boltzmann distribution. The concept of stored energy introduces a precision

to the concept of free-energy, because it is deﬁned with respect to a characteristic time

interval, and so allows its applicability to individual molecules, cell compartments, cells

and organisms, since every level in the organic hierarchy can be characterized by its own

temporal scales.

According to McClare [xviii-xix] organisms are not thermal machines, but isothermal

systems that depend on the ﬂow of chemical energy that can be stored and used, when

necessary, as macromolecules act as 100% eﬃcient chemical machines. A cell is a highly

heterogeneous organized system composed of micro space compartments in which,

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various processes in stationary states take place, at time scales ranging from 10 to

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0 seconds, so rapidly and eﬃciently, that they do not have time to equilibrate. Thus,

processes of energy release by rupture of chemical bonds are used to synthesize other

biomolecules within the cell. Consequently, molecular machines, perform work (W) by

direct transfer of energy stored within the same system and so promote the integration

of processes at diﬀerent time scales. The end result is cell eﬃciency in the use and storage

3

In other words, it is needed to investigate the ﬂows and transformations of energy into organized systems such as living beings.

For this reason, various authors have chosen to distinguish energy according to quality, using the notions of exergy and entropy.

The ﬁrst corresponds to high-quality energy that can be used by the system under certain conditions of the environment, and the

second corresponds to low-quality energy, which cannot be used to perform work, and which is therefore dissipated to the outsi-

de. That is, poor quality energy dissipated by one system can be used and degraded further by another system until its ultimate

dissipation in heat energy at equilibrium.. In this work I will prefer the term “stored energy”, instead of “exergy” in order to avoid

terminological confusions.

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of energy, keeping compartments stationary and minimizing thermal dissipation. For

example, photosynthesis results in amazingly fast and eﬃcient energy transfers away

from equilibrium: 1) Molecular resonance energies have been estimated at the order of

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0 seconds in the ﬁrst step of photosynthesis in the green photosynthetic bacterium

named Chlorobium tepidum. 2) Separation of positive and negative charges in chlorophyll

molecules at the reactive center formed by the Fenna-Mathews-Olson complex (FMO)

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[

16] takes place in less than 10 sec. 3) The energy absorbed by hundreds of thousands

of chlorophylls at the chlorosome is transferred, and part of it dissipates by generating

vibrations of this protein, creating an energy landscape that funnels the absorption of

excitations in the reactive center with almost 100% eﬃciency.

Consequently, Mae-Wan Ho [xx] highlights the two main conclusions that can be derived

from the second law. 1) In thermal equilibrium, it is impossible to convert dissipated energy

as random molecular motion into stored energy. 2) The energy stored in the molecular

bonds is speciﬁcally released and becomes another so quickly that it does not have enough

time to contribute to the dissipation of entropy.

This view implies that every organized system like a cell operates as an ecosystem,

where the ﬂow of energy transactions in the ideal case tends to reach states of minimal

dissipation to the outside, as a result of the fact that compartments within the system

eﬃciently take advantage of energy. The point to emphasize is that, in eﬀect and because

of the second law, spontaneous processes tend to degrade energy gradients, but given the

systemic nature of the organization, unproﬁtable energy in one compartment is exploited

by another component within the same system, therefore, external dissipation of entropy

is minimal. In other words, the internal use of energy is maximized by catalyzing the

system to greater degrees of structuring and organization.

On the other hand, the study of energy ﬂows in ecosystems prompted Howard Odum

[

xxi] to show that each structure is characterized by being a speciﬁc way of storing and

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using energy . Consequently, the value of stored energy in all the productions of nature

and technology, can eventually be estimated in solar energy equivalents, or the amount of

energy needed to produce a particular form, assuming that solar radiation was the only

available source. Odum roughly estimated, in terms of solar radiant energy, the energy

invested in the construction of each level of biological structuring, taking into account

all the energy transformations that have supported the biosphere and have accumulated

into organized structures for billions of years, including human technology in the past

thousands of years. Solar energy that has entered the planet is very abundant, however, it

has a very low quality or transformative power in the sense that most of it is lost as entropy.

In this sense, the amount of stored energy (emergy) constitutes a factor that allows to rank

4

Odum coined the term “emergy” in order to refer to stored energy. Also, he used the term “exergy” to denote the energy that can

be used by systems organized under certain environmental conditions. Both terms “emergy” and “exergy” refer to free-energy, the

former places the accent in its storage and the latter in its usage.

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the diﬀerent forms of energy ﬂowing through ecological systems. Let us remember that

energy quality refers to its eﬃcient use by a user in the economic system of living nature.

Odum [xxii-xxiii-xxiv] also argued that in ecosystems there is a process aimed at

maximizing the energy incorporated in any given structure, which determines the

transformations toward higher quality forms of energy and their storage in structures

of increasing complexity. This principle of maximum empowerment stipulates that the

systems that prevail are those that develop the most eﬀective and beneﬁcial work with

incoming energy sources through a cooperative systemic organization.

AccordingtoSvenErikJørgensen[xxv], free-energy(exergy)isinvestedinwork, keepingthe

system as far away as possible from thermodynamic equilibrium, so generating gradients.

This proposal gave rise to the debate on whether a fourth law of thermodynamics should

be formulated, since it was no longer just a question of recognizing that entropy increases,

but that these increases take place at the fastest possible rate. In other words, systems

tend to move far away from equilibrium as quickly as possible, resulting in highly ordered

structures. According to Jørgensen and his group [xxvi-xxvii-xxviii], systems tend to use

available free-energy (exergy) to stay away from equilibrium, and as more free-energy

is available, they move even faster from equilibrium, resulting in the rise of new energy

gradients. At unstable critical points, where there is more than one way accessible, the

system chooses the one that allows the most eﬃciently work under existing conditions,

thus taking the fastest path possible, leading to the generation of more complex structures.

While the second law highlights the depletion of available energy, the fourth law allows to

focus on the wealth generated as potential, represented in high quality stored energy that

can be further invested in the generation of organized structure and biomass production.

Consequently, the fourth law heralds the trend towards developing more complex networks

wherever energy is used and reinvested in feedback cycles that stabilize restrictions and

thus facilitate the uptake of more energy-matter.

This thesis conﬂicts with the more widespread interpretation of the second law of

thermodynamics, which establishes an increase of entropy in the universe by dissipating

energy as heat waste and brings with it the decay of organized systems approaching a state

of equilibrium, in which all structures are degraded to be absorbed by the lower level of

poor free-energy content. The diﬀerence is that, for Jørgensen, energy gradients degrade

as quickly as possible, to be used and invested in the construction of highly organized

systems that store free-energy. Colloquially, we would say that while the second law sees

the glass of water half empty and gradually running out, the fourth sees it half full, and

being rapidly reﬁlled. Accordingly, the second law sees the systems in a phase of decay or

gradual approximation to equilibrium as some forms are actualized, whereas the tentative

fourth law sees them in their stage of accelerated growth and expansion.

The second law defines an arrow of time towards disorder because of the mechanical

and random movements of the constituent particles of matter free of restrictions.

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But we must never forget that particle dispersion conceived by Boltzmann is an idealized

model formulated for expanding rareﬁed gases in conditions of closure, a situation that

does not apply to real systems composed of interacting particles and submitted to ﬂows

of energy matter. In the absence of energy matter ﬂows, the most likely conﬁgurations

at the macroscopic level correspond to the homogeneous state of equilibrium with the

environment,whereasinthepresenceofenergymatterﬂows,themostlikelyconﬁgurations

correspond to far from equilibrium heterogeneous organized forms.

The diﬀerence in behaviors between closed systems in near proximity to equilibrium and

open systems that move away from it, is expressed in the formulation of the tentative

fourth law of thermodynamics. Accordingly, entropy increases as the degradation of

energy gradients proceeds, but given that this process takes place at the fastest possible

rates, it leads to a maximization of stored energy and use eﬃciency, giving rise to a far from

equilibrium organized states that are supported by their coupling to new energy sources.

Consequently, the fourth law prescribes the generation of systems of growing complexity.

The tentative fourth law corresponds to the way energy transactions take place in

ecological systems, considering that, 1) processes of energy storage support the generation

of structures that reinforce energy uptake and eﬃciency of their use. 2) Living systems

operate in conditions of openness to the surrounding environment, which allows for the

permanent exchange and recycling of basic constituent materials. 3) Organized systems

are stabilized by constraints imposed by negative feedback cycles from the environment to

the system. 4) Cooperative work between the various constituent subsystems is essential

to optimize the use of energy.

According to Crawford Holling [xxix], ecological processes do not follow a linear path

of potential growth, but a four-stage cycle. 1) Exploration and exploitation of available

resources by pioneer species. 2) Conservation and consolidation of species with greater

structural complexity. 3) Relaxation and degradation of the organization by external

and internal causes. 4) Reorganization of available resources and enhancement of a new

cycle. The new cycles produce a total increase in biomass and structure in the ecosystem,

generating a greater number of feedback loops and metabolic pathways, coupled altogether

to provoke a decrease in entropy dissipation in relation to biomass. However, increasing

the eﬃciency of energy transactions results in an increase in the amount of structural

information, manifested in ever greater species and genetic diversity.

It goes without saying that in the advanced technological societies of the present, these

principlesarenotfulﬁlled, sincetheprevailingglobaleconomicorderdoesnotfavorahighly

decentralized energy acquisition, cooperation, recycling of materials, or diversiﬁcation of

energy sources, let alone the maintenance of the ecological networks that have evolved

over billions of years.

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4

. information proCEssing lEads to thE implEmEntation of

struCtural Constraints

The Maximum Power Principle of Odum, ﬁnds a complementary version in the proposal

of Rod Swenson [xxx-xxxi], who formulated the Principle of Maximum Production of

Entropy, according to which systems take the path that maximizes the production of

entropy, in the fastest way according to present restrictions. Consequently, the path that

globally maximizes entropy by the dissipation of energy gradients, is the same one that

minimizes its production locally by generating ordered structures or low entropy states.

In the case of a set of self-catalytic reactions, in which some molecules facilitate the

formation of more complex ones, depending on an external supply of simpler molecules,

reaction rates tend to increase exponentially until simple reactants are exhausted by

dilution and diﬀusion in the environment, so that the attained organization can no

longer propagate itself. But if two or more self-catalytic processes are coupled, there is a

reciprocal constriction between them [xxxii-xxxiii], that would give rise to reaction cycles

that stabilize and propagate, reinforcing itself in the form of Eigen´s hypercycles or just

Kauﬀman´s catalytic self-organized networks. An emerging system can only gain some

autonomy over the environment, if there is a supply of the simplest primary molecules

provided by the environment, and retained in microcompartments that prevent their

diﬀusion in order to facilitate the propagation of the organization of the entire self-

catalytic set. Similar mechanisms have been described to explain the reproduction of

viruses within cells [xxxix]. Likewise, organisms create an immediate environment or a

niche, so that they can use the stored energy to thrive despite adverse and unexpected

pressures from the external environment.

The words restriction and constraint have a negative connotation associated with

impairment, absence, unﬁnished status, but, on the other hand, it can also be seen in its

positive aspect as equivalent to the conditions under which order and organization is

maintained. The synergistic coupling of two or more self-organizing catalytic processes,

facilitates the establishment and stabilization of restrictions that keep systems away from

the equilibrium condition, making it possible to propagate the organization. In other words,

energy is invested in the construction of structural constraints which, in turn, make the

work carried out by the release of energy more eﬃcient. In this way, systems evolve toward

maximum empowerment. For example, a combustion of a certain volume of fuel can

occur under non-restrictive conditions, as in the case of a Molotov cocktail that causes an

uncontrolled and destructive explosion, preventing its use, since it abruptly dissipates its

chemical energy without being harnessed for usage (maximum dissipation of entropy to

the environment). Otherwise, if the same amount of fuel were burnt in an idealized Carnot

machine, under conditions of adiabatic isolation and frictionless isothermal expansion,

it would result in a 100% eﬃcient work transformation, without entropy dissipation, in

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a quasi-static process that would take an extremely long time, given by a sum of inﬁnite

reversible steps, to complete the expansion-contraction cycle.

Although highly eﬃcient, this process is not useful either, because organized systems

require rapid energy transformation for use as needed, in order to gain in autonomy. The

optimization of the energy use by an organized system, takes place at a point in which

the restrictive constraints create a suitable environment or ecological niche protected

from external inﬂuences, so that the work output is used and invested to store energy and

control its usage in order to feed continuous growth and development. Thence, energy is

chemically stored for use in the generation of new restrictions that favor the maximization

of its utilization in the execution of tasks and functions in the available niches that as they

are created and occupied, open new possibilities for other systems, resulting in energy

transformation cycles where entropy dissipated into the environment is minimized,

tending at the limit to a value close to zero.

Localmaximumreversibleandeﬃcienttransfersofenergytakeplaceasenergyisupgraded

within the organized system with respect to the basal level of the environment. The idea of

autonomous agents as self-referential isothermal engines that depend on chemical energy

gradients has been discussed by Kauﬀman [xxxv], [xxxvi]. Organized systems evolve to

the state in which they maximize their ability to execute useful work, but paradoxically,

in order to achieve the state of maximum conversion of energy into usable work, systems

must destroy the energy gradients at the fastest possible speed. Interestingly, restrictions

prevent them from exhausting external energy sources, once they have become dependent

on internally stored energy.

According to Ulanowizc [xxxvii] and Kauﬀman [xxxviii-xxxix], among others, there is a

tendency of nature to generate systems of increasing complexity without therefore having

to accept that the increase in complexity must necessarily proceed by a speciﬁc route with

a predeﬁned purpose in advance. The fourth law states that “the biosphere maximizes the

average secular construction of the diversity of autonomous agents and the ways how these

agents make a living and propagate further” [xl]. Therefore, processes go through the path

that degrades gradients as quickly as possible, which is deﬁned by a multitude of factors

that converge in space-time. The spatiotemporal distribution of living agents and their

structural properties mirrors the history of the interaction between living systems and the

environment. But this history must be irreversible and non-ergodic because the space of

possible accessible states growths much faster than the number of realized states. Thus,

the probability of returning to a state previously realized in the past is for all practical

purposes zero. For systems like living cells, organism and biospheres whose phase space

grows extraordinarily faster than exponential, it cannot be stated beforehand which are

the ones that are actually to be realized in the next evolutionary step. For this reason,

Kauﬀman [xli] coined the term “adjacent possible”, which refers to the set of states that

are accessible at deﬁned given time. Accordingly, potential information refers to the set of

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all conﬁgurations that can be accessed in one evolutionary step at a given time and place,

among all imaginable conﬁgurations.

When talking about the set of realized chemical entities in a delimited region of the

universe, the adjacent possible is the set of new chemicals that can be produced in the

next reaction step as a result of the interactions. New chemical entities which exhibit

properties that did not exist previously, will come into being. Yet, information processing

rules the choice among the options that are really possible and accessible. In other

words, organized systems, in their interactions with the environment, evaluate physical

disturbances as possible informational signals that guide the choice of appropriate

options. In this way, every one of the increasingly complex and diverse forms that emerge

face a greater number of possible alternatives, some of which will eventually be realized,

further enhancing the dynamics of evolution. The point however is to understand that the

space of available options (adjacent possible) increases at much faster rate than the space

of realized conﬁgurations. Thus, the free-energy landscape will pull up towards higher

energy states that have become the most likely to occur, instead of having to try at random,

every single conﬁguration one at a time. This problem motivates the formulation of an

expanded notion of information processing [xlii ], as the factor that guides the decisions

of energy-consuming agents, and thus, redirects the ﬂow of available energy by imposing

restrictions on a diversity of systems chaotically distributed over an energy landscape

that would otherwise tend to ﬂatten.

Information processing should be understood as the controlled imposition of restrictions

to ensure the maintenance and propagation of the organization. Ontogenetic development

is driven by an intense ﬂow of energy that takes place far from thermal equilibrium.

Following Stanley Salthe [xliii-xliv], it is possible to distinguish three stages through which

any developing system go: a) Juvenile stage (openness, free of restrictions), b) Mature

stage (regulated and partially opened, restrictions play a positive role) and c) Senile stage

(

closure, restrictions play a negative role). These stages were inferred by estimating the

density of energy ﬂow per unit mass relative to time throughout development. In phase (a),

at the initial youth stage, the system has not yet been deﬁned as a new entity, resulting in a

sharp increase in the net ﬂow of energy per unit of mass through the system, so boosting

an irreversible process of individuation. At this stage, growth is very rapid but it cannot

continue indeﬁnitely because it would deplete the available energy.

For this reason, the system adopts restrictions that characterize the stage (b) of maturity.

This stage is characterized by a grow of internal organization, establishing a steady state

with respect to the new incorporated restrictions, associated with a maximization and

stabilizationinthedensityofenergyﬂow.Inthisway,thedevelopingsystemisindividualized

and becomes autonomous, while being functionally adapted and specialized. The

ﬂexibility of the system allows to explore and use various energy gradients, while structural

constraints play a positive role in enabling, directing and channeling a diversity of pathways

that are available for energy use. In the terminal stage (c), the developing systems become

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rigid and hardly respond to external stimuli due to the decrease in energy ﬂow density. So

structural restrictions play a negative role and prevent the use of new energy gradients,

causing the individual to lose autonomy and ﬂexibility.

The traditional view of entropy as the antithesis of information has been questioned [xlv-

xlvi- xlvii], gaining acceptance the contrary idea that as the ﬁrst one increases, the second

also grows, leading to an increase in structure, order and organization, moving further

away from the fully randomized conﬁguration, widening the gap between the possible and

the actual. This phenomenon takes place precisely because restrictions channel the ﬂow

of usable energy and allow its storage by generating structures that go through the stages

of growth, maturity, decay and disintegration. To increase entropy is to deplete the energy

that sustains that order and therefore induces degradation. But as discussed above, before

draining this power, systems generate internal compartments, and explore new available

energy gradients that will allow them to growth and propagate their organization. If it is

not possible to build up new energy gradients by storing energy, systems are maintained

to the maximum degree of organization allowed by available energy ﬂows. Yet, in case of

complete depletion they are assimilated by the environment formed by the systems of

lesser complexity that preceded them.

Moreover, according to Rod Swenson [xlviii], information and entropy go hand in hand,

given that organizing processes increase the entropy of the universe in a much faster

and more eﬀective way. As organizational complexity increases, constraints move the

systems away from equilibrium, causing the reverse tendency to achieving equilibrium

more strongly. But as proﬁtable sources of energy are destroyed, systems invest it in

building structures that move the universe further away from equilibrium by means of

the imposition of new restrictions. In this way, as ever more complex forms emerge, the

opposite tendency to degrade them increases. The point is that living beings are endowed

with an ability to detect energy gradients, that are to be converted into higher quality of

stored energy, an activity that leads to the creation of new gradients.

The eﬀort of science to develop technologies that diversify access to higher-quality

energy sources to store and use it eﬃciently through more complex technological devices,

is consistent with the way nature operates. What goes against nature is to believe that

there is only one source of energy available, and that the dominant technology must

manage its ﬂow in a centralized way. It also goes against the way nature works to dissipate

gradients from source to sink, without investing in the buildup of constraints that favor

the maintenance and propagation of the organization. By contrast, the diversity of life

forms is due to the diversity of energy gradients that can be used and dissipated in a wide

variety of decentralized ways. Human beings are energy-degrading on an intensive scale,

but problems arise when this energy sources are captured by few and released dropwise

for use from a centralized source, and even worse, not constructively invested with high

eﬃciency, minimizing external dissipation. Technological societies of the present have

not yet incorporated the necessary restrictions for the use of the various energy sources

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between the diﬀerent compartments or regions in which we are artiﬁcially divided

according to political zones of inﬂuence.

Technological societies must be reorganized in the way cellular and ecological living

systems operate. It is therefore urgent to overcome the dependence of fossil fuel, in order

to give priority to the exploitation of a diversity of sources with greater eﬃciency in their

storage and conversion. In addition, social modes of cooperation must be promoted, so

that energy stored in the products of one sector are made available to another without

the production of waste or non-recyclable materials. Energy, in the economy as in nature,

must ﬂow cyclically in its mature and stable phases, approaching zero dissipation, while

the exponential growth phases must be based on the cooperative work of a huge number

of microsystems that permanently harvest and store the energy that contribute to the

empowerment of the whole ecosystem, so promoting the emergence of a more complex

level of organization. Rapid growth stages due to the collective permanent harvesting,

storage and usage of energy, must lead to lasting periods of stability and homeostasis.

5

. lifE is a flow of EnErgy ControllEd by information

Eric Chaisson [xlix] considered that Shannon-inspired measures on the content of

information in bits were not interesting in addressing physical, biological and technological

evolution. Instead, the focus should be placed on energy, understood as the source of the

organization at diﬀerent levels, as Lotka and Odum had initially pointed out [l-li] [lii-

liii-liv]. Chaisson soon realized that although a star has a lot more energy, estimated in

absolute values than a bacterium, the latter is more complex. Accordingly, he deﬁned a Ф

parameter, -total energy ﬂow per unit of mass per unit of time-, which measures the free-

energy used per second per unit of mass (ergs/sec/gm), i.e., the energy available to build

structural and functional complexity. The Ф parameter does not measure total energy, but

the density of its ﬂow. His results show that the estimated Ф value for the sun (Ф = 2) has

roughly two orders of magnitude less than a plant (Ф = 900). That is, although the sun

uses energy based on nuclear fusion, it is surprisingly, a much less energy dense system

and so less complex, compared to a plant that uses chemical and quantum processes in

photosynthesis. That is, much more energy ﬂows through the same mass per unit of time

in a plant than through an equivalent mass of the sun.

Chaisson reported relative values dependent on system mass, composition and eﬃciency.

He showed that nature is apparently governed by a principle of optimizing energy

use. Consequently, evolution is governed by what he called the “principle of energy

compression,” according to which energy ﬂows (harvested, stored, transformed, used,

degraded) by complex adaptive systems form an emerging hierarchy of developmental

systems, ranging from galaxies to human societies, including our technological systems.

The complexity of an emerging system would be a function dependent on Ф, that in the

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case of the known universe describes an exponential growth curve from the inﬂationary

expansion approximately 300,000 years after the big bang to the present, 14 billion years later.

Open systems, far from the thermodynamic equilibrium, capture and use energy, which

they invest in the formation of restricted structures that channel and guide the ﬂow of

energy [lv- lvi]. In this sense, Ф is not only a measure of structural complexity, but also

of system’s adaptive responsiveness. The complexity of a structure can be estimated as a

function of the energy density or the rate at which free-energy circulates per unit of mass.

The constructive capacity of the system and its complexity is directly proportional to the

density of the energy ﬂow (erg/sec/gr) [lvii], which has increased throughout cosmic

5

history at an exponential rate . That is, information should be understood as the ability to

channel energy by unit of mass and time, generating and maintaining structures necessary

to ensure increases in complexity. As a result, the ability to process the information

increases.

Every new level of organization that emerges accumulates and compresses the relevant

information contained in less complex previous systems so that it can cope with more

complex and demanding environments by executing more complex tasks and functions.

Consequently, new systems contain the relevant information of precursors incorporated

into their structure, so that as more complex levels emerge, new potential information can

be actualized in future situations. In this sense, the total information of the universe grows

with complexity, as well as the tendency of systems to stay as far away as possible from

thermal equilibrium. The alleged opposition between constructive impulses to increasing

complexity (growth of both potential and actualized information) and a degrading

tendency towards absorption by the less complex systems (maximum entropy and absence

of free-energy), reﬂects a profound characteristic of nature in which opposing forces or

tendencies operate simultaneously across all levels of organization. The state of any given

system is the result of the informational transactions made by the organizing systems in

order to relieve this tension.

Therefore, the lower levels optimize the capture, storage and use within the restrictive

conditions imposed on them by the emerging higher system. In other words,

maximizing the power or work exercised by an organized system, is the outcome of a

compromise between opposing tendencies to restore global equilibrium, moving as far

away as possible from it at the local level. In the exploration of the space of possible

configurations, a maximum action (energy use) that allows to orient all resources

toward the search for the paths leading to the faster degradation of the energy gradients

is observed. The information gathered by the organizing systems allows to detect the

5

The average density of estimated energy rates in [erg/s/g] and age in giga-years for human society (aged 0 giga-years old)

has been estimated Ф = 500.000 [erg/s/g], in Ф = 40.000 for animals (aged 0.5 giga-years old), in Ф = 3,900 for plants (aged

.0 giga-years old), Ф = 75 for the geosphere (aged 4 giga-years old), Ф = 2 for the sun (aged 5 giga-years old), and Ф = 0.5 for the

milky way (aged 12 giga-years old).

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energy gradients to be used, we are thus inevitable trapped in a non-tautological circular

process, like a spiral that opens and widens, diversiﬁes and reintegrates continuously in a

wholly unpredictable manner.

The alleged opposition between entropic and organizing tendencies leads to an

understanding of the hierarchical organization of nature through the magnifying glass

of an ontology of processes, in which these tendencies act simultaneously, one described

by the second law (decreasing available free-energy) and the other one by tentative fourth

law (increasing access to free-energy) thus, generating complex forms. As explained,

information regulates the restrictive settings that direct the ﬂow of energy and guides

the election at unstable points where trajectories bifurcate. Consequently, the energy

ﬂow available in the surroundings promotes the generation of more complex systems

that are plastic enough to redirect and channel the ﬂow of energy in various ways by

imposing restrictions that increases the density of energy ﬂow.

Therefore, natural selection has favored the autonomy of living beings or agents that

collectivelynegotiatetheeﬀectsoftheseopposingimpulses,thuspromotingmorphogenetic

processes as greater densiﬁcation of the energy ﬂow is achieved. Meanwhile the higher

eﬃciency of the lower levels represented in the transformation of solar energy made

by photosynthetic bacteria and its transformation by microbiome, is enhanced. Living

systems do not evolve according to premises deﬁned by initial conditions and an invariant

law, on the contrary, they gain and create information, maximize their potential for

action and modify themselves, so channeling processes oriented to the achievement of

conﬁgurations that were not predetermined by the initial conditions.

Conclusions

The cosmological consequence of this approach would be the need to acknowledge the

existence of two opposing and complementary tendencies in the universe: the ﬁrst toward

the generation of ordered forms of growing complexity (fourth law of thermodynamics)

and the second toward increase of dynamic disorder (second law of thermodynamics).

As explained so far, life exists as a local organization maintained by a highly dense ﬂow

of energy, because the universe as a global system tends to move toward thermodynamic

equilibrium and in doing so gets further away from it. In the same way, the universe also

faces restrictions given by gravitational forces that condense matter in certain regions,

preventing its homogeneous dispersion. Moreover, according to Lee Smolin, the appearance

of black holes gives stability to the universes that contain them, making them more like

living organizing structures than a dispersive Boltzmann gas. In this sense, the origin of

life meant the emergence of more eﬃcient routes for the capture, storage and use of energy

gradients through the generation of highly organized structures.

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Analyzes based on the second law are paradoxical, if one does not consider that life

must ensure the maintenance and conservation of the dissipative pathways, developing

innovative strategies for eﬃcient capture and usage of energy gradients. This objective

is achieved by minimizing the overall production of entropy through the reuse of energy

by other agents that couple with each other, resulting in highly integrated symbiotic and

ecological networks of interaction. Living systems are organized systems with structural

and genetic memory, that facilitate the propagation of dissipative processes, thanks

to the fact that energy, as it is consumed, is invested to boost growth, development and

reproduction, while becoming available to potential predators. If we view the earth as an

open thermodynamic system, terrestrial life manages to capture a small fraction of solar

radiation, that is transformed into energy stored in chemical bonds. However, while solar

energy is of very low quality and dissipates mostly in the environment, the stored chemical

energy is of high quality, allowing a high eﬃciency in its use by intracellular enzymatic

systems, promoting metabolism and self-organization, as explained by the tentative

fourth law [lviii-lix-lx].

As I have shown, the tendency to form stationary states away from equilibrium does

not lead to global equilibrium (thermal death), but rather to a departure from it. These

complex dynamics underpins the ecological interpretation of the second law, which led to

the formulation of the fourth law. Most of the scientiﬁc community consider the latter to

be a speciﬁcation of the second, and therefore it would not be necessary to formulate it.

For my part, I argue that far from equilibrium open systems like living systems are more

general, while near to equilibrium closed systems like thermal machines, are very speciﬁc

and artiﬁcial cases. From an informational perspective that places creative evolution as a

central aspect, the fourth law must be accepted, to the extent that it allows to imagine the

universe as a process of emergency and permanent degradation, where information rules

a dynamic opposition between tendencies toward increasing complexity and the opposite

tendency to systems’ degradation that are swallowed by the lower levels or organization.

In this perspective, the role of Darwinian natural selection would be no other than to

preserve and favor systems suﬃciently plastic to respond to the sudden changes in the

environment, in other words, those that process information more eﬃciently. We must

discuss what is meant when we say that a living system can incorporate information

from the environment. This problem refers to the circularity and reciprocity of relations

between organisms and the environment. While the latter imposes restrictions on the

structure in growth and development, the living system does not suﬀer passively from this

imposition, but according to its perceptual system (set of sensory structures that allow it to

probe the environment according to certain thresholds of sensitivity) and organizational

structure (internal processing modules, connected to motor eﬀector structures) deﬁnes

the type of structural adjustment or modiﬁcation to be adopted, as well as the action to be

implemented.

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A structure has incorporated information from the environment when in its

adjusting gains stability, becoming more constrained in that environment. Structural

accommodations are constraints that lower the entropy of macromolecular component

subsystems; however, these lower-levels of organization (genetic and molecular) do not

determine the phenotypic structural states, but rather make them possible. Information

has an intrinsic value to the extent that it helps the organizing system to detect energy

gradients that can be used. The idea of information as formulated by Shannon has been

reduced to set of binary elections made by observers located at the higher level, in order

to reduce the uncertainty about the lower levels, without any consideration for its

meaning and value. The idea of information processing must include the using system

and so, it is best understood as the contingencies faced by any living systems that strive

to buﬀering the tension between lower and higher levels of organization by choosing

the corresponding structural adjustments and the actions to be executed in order to

eﬃciently capture and employ energy.

Living systems select few among the many possibilities given by the lower complex levels

and the rife alternatives oﬀered by the surrounding environment. There is a tendency of

nature to generate systems of increasing complexity without therefore having to accept

that this increase should proceed through a speciﬁc route with a predeﬁned purpose.

On the contrary, I argue for the existence of multiple ways to increase complexity, but

the deﬁnition of which are the ones that take place, is due to a multitude of factors that

contingently converge in a speciﬁc space-time situation. The metaphor of informed choice

made by the organized system, is used to explain the transit from the immense potential

options and those that in fact take place.

This choice is a preference made by living systems, rather than a random elimination

of other alternatives. Information as a generative process of increasingly complex and

diverse forms, faces a greater number of possible choices at each step, some of which are

eventually accomplished, further enhancing the evolutionary dynamics of the universe.

As I have claimed, information guides the decisions faced by the agents in order to direct

the ﬂow of available energy, feeding a potential as restrictions are imposed on systems

composed of subsystems that would otherwise tend to be evenly distributed. The choice

in question is the result of information transactions that actualize potencies, while

potentiating actualities, thus triggering a process of antagonist and complementary

tendencies: 1) towards increasing complexity, and 2) to the degradation and subsumption

by lowers level of organization. Information is the transactional buﬀering that regulates

this tension by the action of organized living systems.

To end up there is not a single overarching arrow of time, but a multiplicity of processes

going on at diﬀerent places in the universe, while some of them might have attained levels

of organized complexity unthinkable for us, others might be just emerging and beginning

to expand, and surely many are decaying and breaking apart and being swallowed by

black holes.

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Revista Iberoamericana de Complejidad y Ciencias Económicas

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Revista Iberoamericana de Complejidad y Ciencias Económicas

Appendices

Table 1. The table shows the contrasting characteristic between the second law of

thermodynamics and the tentative fourth law as discussed in the text.

Second Law

Fourth Law

Entropy (low quality energy)

Carnot, Clausius, Boltzmann

Free-energy, high quality energy

Odum, Jorgensen, Kauﬀman

Modeled studying eﬃciency of thermic

machines

Modeled studying ecosystems and cell

energy transactions

Degradation of energy gradients, decreasing

potency

Rise in complexity, increasing potency,

creation of new energy gradients

Closure and isolation, low energy ﬂow

Local Equilibrium

Openness and interaction, high energy ﬂow

Global Distancing from Equilibrium

Structural decay and absorption by lower

levels

Structure buildup and emergence of higher

levels of organization

Arrow of time => thermal death

Arrow of time => increasing organization

Figure 1

A two-dimensional proﬁle of energy gradients is depicted. in which the “Y” axis stands

for free-energy content and, “X” axis for time. Figure (a) represents the passage from

potency to its actualization as a stable state by a single discharge of energy contained in

the input. Figure (b) shows how the previous process can be more complex as more energy

is incorporated all along and so new intermediary states are passed through. Figure (c)

shows a case in which a low free-energy state can be potentiated by incoming energy that

pushes the attainment of stable high energy states.

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