The opposition between entropy increases and the generation of increasing complexity can be approached from an informational perspective

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 two perspectives can be reconciled from the perspective of information processing systems. 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. 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 prospective of the processing systems decrease their uncertainty about their surroundings, 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.