Entropy is better related to unification than to order

Ron Cottam; Roger Vounckx

doi:10.1016/j.biosystems.2022.104815

Entropy is better related to unification than to order

Biosystems. 2023 Jan:223:104815. doi: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2022.104815. Epub 2022 Nov 24.

Authors

Ron Cottam¹, Roger Vounckx²

Affiliations

¹ The Living Systems Project, Dept. of Electronics and Informatics, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Pleinlaan 2, Brussels, Belgium. Electronic address: ricottam@etrovub.be.
² The Living Systems Project, Dept. of Electronics and Informatics, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Pleinlaan 2, Brussels, Belgium. Electronic address: rvounckx@etrovub.be.

PMID: 36427704
DOI: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2022.104815

Abstract

There are difficulties related to the classical establishment of entropy. It is conventionally viewed as the inverse of order in a system, or more precisely as a quantification of the number of possible systemic microstate reorganisations. This should attribute the related energy to a spectrum of possibilities, from the conventionally 'expected order at one end to a different unexpected order at the other, with disorder between the two', rather than the conventional 'order at one end to disorder at the other'. We propose that the resolution of this dichotomy lies in relating entropy to system unification, in place of simplistic order, which in any case is unfathomable in a complex organisationally multi-levelled organism. We conclude by questioning the entropic place of the brain in the Universe.

MeSH terms

Brain*
Entropy