The Tao, Thermodynamics, and this Blog

Lao Tzu wrote of the TAO and balance at a personal, spiritual, political, and societal level. Sir Isaac Newton wrote of physics and physical/ mathematical balance.

Balance is opposing forces- the Yin/Yang, the universal see-saw, the perfect pendulum.

True equilibrium, in a thermodynamic closed system, the teeter-totter that never moves, is death. A can of cola at room temperature is in “equilibrium”. It does not change. It is dead.

Dorian Sagan, among other brilliant minds, wrote of thermodynamics and the  balance of energy in the universe as a gradient. On a miniscule scale, our solar system is not a closed system like the cola can. A gradient exists between the high quality energy of our sun and the cold of the edge of the universe. Energy flows Into the Cool.

Life exists far from the thermodynamic equilibrium of a cola can. We live in an energy gradient and participate by processing energy to make the gradient efficient. Life results.

This is my interpretation of the balance Lao Tsu understood, thermodynamic balance, and life as I understand it.

LIFE IS . . . 1) An Emergent Property

Life is an emergent property of autopoietic, dissipative systems.

Emergent property:  Imagine an automobile engine, completely dissembled on the shop floor.  You look at each piece, each wire, each connector.  It makes no sense and you can't imagine the purpose of the assembled unit.

Sir Isaac Newton imagined the Universe and life as a giant mechanical system that could be understood if completely dissembled and examined.  He was wrong.

Life self organizes with increasing complexity for only one purpose- obeying the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

LIFE IS . . . 2) Autopoesis.

Life is an emergent property of autopoietic, dissipative systems.

There is no such thing as a perpetual motion machine.  Without energy input, all activity comes to equilibrium and stops.  Death.

Autopoesis is a self-regulating, self-perpetuating system.  Think metabolism.  Photosynthesis is a series of chemical reactions that converts sunlight into stored chemical energy- sugar from plants.   The Krebs Cycle converts stored energy in sugar into chemical energy that powers life's activities- leaving heat as waste.  

They are both regenerating, cyclic systems that obey the Second Law of Thermodynamics.  They convert high quality sunlight into chemical energy we know as sugar, into life's various activities.

Autopoesis is the machine that converts sunlight into heat, allowing life in between the extremes of the gradient.

LIFE IS . . . 3) Dissipative Systems

Life is an emergent property of autopoietic, dissipative systems.

According to Wikipedia: A dissipative system is a thermodynamically open system which is operating out of, and often far from, thermodynamic equilibrium in an environment with which it exchanges energy and matter.

The purpose and driving force for life, evolution, and creation is the efficient conversion of high quality energy into low quality heat.  Creation is the self-organizing, increasingly complex process necessary to achieve that single goal.

TAO 1- The Indescribable

The Tao that can be described is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be spoken is not the eternal Name.
The nameless is the boundary of Heaven and Earth.
The named is the mother of creation.
Freed from desire, you can see the hidden mystery.
By having desire, you can only see what is visibly real.
Yet mystery and reality emerge from the same source.
This source is called darkness.
Darkness born from darkness.
The beginning of all understanding.

I certainly don’t understand Newton's law of Thermodynamics. 

Just as Robert Heinlein’s character Michael in Stranger in a Strange Land would “grok” it at a deep spiritual level, we grok the concept of a creative force but can’t explain it.

Thermodynamics is that drive, the border between entropy and enthalpy. 

It is mystery and reality.

In the beginning there was darkness, 

then the big bang collided p- and m- branes

- fired by the force of Thermodynamics.

TAO 2- Balance

When people see things as beautiful,

ugliness is created.

When people see things as good,

evil is created.

Being and non-being produce each other.

Difficult and easy complement each other.

Long and short define each other.

High and low oppose each other.

Fore and aft follow each other.

Therefore the Master

can act without doing anything

and teach without saying a word.

Things come her way and she does not stop them;

things leave and she lets them go.

She has without possessing,

and acts without any expectations.

When her work is done, she take no credit.

That is why it will last forever.

Begin a journey into the Yin and Yang- balancing creative forces. 

When one force occurs, the balancing force happens. 

Beauty balances Ugly. Light v. Dark. Good v. Bad.

Thermodynamics is the balance of entropy (Yin) and enthalpy (Yang)

As a part of the universe is organized, increasing enthalpy, another region must balance with an increase in disorder- entropy. 

One creates the other without cause and effect.

TAO 3- Enthaly and Ehtropy

If you overly esteem talented individuals,
people will become overly competitive.
If you overvalue possessions,
people will begin to steal.

Do not display your treasures
or people will become envious.

The Master leads by
emptying people's minds,
filling their bellies,
weakening their ambitions,
and making them become strong.
Preferring simplicity and freedom from desires,
avoiding the pitfalls of knowledge and wrong action.

For those who practice not-doing,
everything will fall into place.

 

In a universe balanced by enthalpy- an increase of order and complexity, and entropy- an increase in disorder, when one creative force occurs, by necessity the other must as well.

Increasing the complexity on Earth, bacteria evolving into humans, has resulted in a more efficient method of processing high quality energy from the sun into low quality heat.

Any attempt to manipulate one results in a balancing manipulation of the other.