Life As I See It

This idea came to my mind this afternoon as I was like usual, sitting alone and day dreaming after having lunch. It was an idea about what is actually LIFE. No! No! Not that kind of lives that most of the Malaysian bloggers write in their blogs, not about what food you eat, how much alcohol you consume or did you enjoy your previous sex…

Many people have told me that ‘life/soul is energy’ since I was young, they described it as energy in your body, and it ‘gets’ out of your body when you die. I didn’t know if they really knew what they were talking about, but that was what they believed. I have not heard any further explanation till this afternoon, I suddenly thought of a better answer for it. I don’t know what you will think about my idea but I will write it down here anyway. But I can tell you my idea doesn’t come with unreason beliefs.

I was thinking that, perhaps second law of thermodynamics can be used to find an answer to the question. Here is a refresh if you have forgotten this theory you learnt in high school:

The total entropy (measure of the disorder of the system) of any system plus that of its environment increases as a result of any natural process.
ΔS = ΔSsys + ΔSenv > 0.

OR

Natural processes tend to move toward a state of greater disorder.

Our life is all about doing work, and we need energy to do work. Also, we can see that in natural processes energy is always conserved (First law of thermodynamics), but as time goes on energy becomes less useful. This is due to the increase of entropy for which order goes to disorder and eventually some energy cannot do useful work anymore. So, you must be thinking, from a single cell evolves to a human being, doesn’t mean that is the increase of order? That sounds like it violates the second law of thermodynamics. In fact, it doesn’t. Yes, from macromolecules to homo sapiens or single cell to human being, these are the examples of increasing order. However, the small molecules (wastes) removed in the process of evolution or growth are simple molecules with higher entropy or disorder. “The total entropy of the molecules cast aside by the organisms during the process of evolution and growth is greater than the decrease in entropy associated with the order of the growing individual” - Douglas C. Giancoli.

In short, my thought is that LIFE IS ABOUT INCREASING ENTROPY. Why? Since a system has the ability to perform work means it has higher order than a system that has no ability to do work. So, from the moment I was born till I die. Order has gone to disorder.

Ok, I want to add something more here. Back to my first post, I mentioned about my classmate who believed god made everything and he doesn’t believe in evolution. As I said, from macromolecules to homo sapiens, a single cell to human being. Things evolve because of second law of thermodynamics, because of things gone from order to disorder. So now, why do we need god here? What is the purpose of having god to exist? I mean we know our universe governed beautifully by Physics laws and Mathematics, things happen because the laws say so. If you ask why the laws are here, then the answer is they must be here otherwise you will not live to ask so. Well, perhaps religious people will say the same thing that we shouldn’t question about the existence of god too. BUT, which is more convincing, the Physics laws that explain the universe to you or god which doesn’t explain anything?

*I am not trying to be provoking to the religous people, it is just my thought. If you think my idea is stupid, leave your comments, cheers.

Choy