[Ylide (OP)]

In Irwin Schrodinger's book "What is Life?" he states that "the human organism feeds on negative entropy."  Discuss.  (Quantumcat, I know you're all about this guy!)



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[chris]

I guess he is getting at our obsession with order ?

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
 - Groucho Marx

[tweener]

He might be getting at the fact that we (very literally) feed on highly complex chemical structures (i.e. living things) that perform a great deal of "negative entropy" just to exist and reproduce.

Or, as you suggest, our whole mindset is aimed at order.  Building, sorting, arranging, categorizing.

Almost all - Teenagers tend to have a high positive entropy level, at least in their rooms.


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John

[Ylide (OP)]

Tweener pretty much hit it.  We consume very large, ordered molecules and excrete much simpler, higher entropy molecules.  

Thus, in order to maintain a low entropy non-equilibrium state of living, we require an "entropy sink"

Schrodinger was great.  I haven't read all of this book, but from what I hear, it's a remarkably perceptive and accurate view of the nature of life considering it was written in the 1940s.



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