Crap! You are right. I said it backwards.
When entropy is low . i.e., when there is a particularly steep gradient in some part of the universe, Nature contrives a means for INCREASING that entropy and that means, paradoxically, is to DECREASE entropy in some localized portion of the universe in order to more efficiently INCREASE it over all. I HATE when that happens. Nick From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Russ Abbott Sent: Thursday, August 05, 2010 12:05 AM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group Subject: Re: [FRIAM] entropy and uncertainty, REDUX Nick, Good to hear from you. Nice description of entropy in animal behavior! I agree with pretty much everything you say. I'm concerned about this sentence, though. When entropy is low . i.e., when there is a particularly steep gradient in some part of the universe, Nature contrives a means for reducing that entropy and that means, paradoxically is to INCREASE entropy in some localized portion of the universe in order to more efficiently decrease it over all. By a particularly steep gradient, I assume you mean any sharp change of some property. The gradient is in some property--not any particular property, and especially not necessarily in entropy. I'm guessing you meant to say that Nature contrives a means for increasing that entropy. (You did say it started out low. I agree with that. Smoothing out the gradient would increase the entropy.) That would increase entropy locally and globally. -- Russ On Wed, Aug 4, 2010 at 7:04 PM, Nicholas Thompson <[email protected]> wrote: energy
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