The following blog is a companion to the Into the Cool book and website and is a forum to respond to many of the issues we raise in the book. Although we are proud of this book, we are even more excited about the information conveyed in Into the Cool: Energy Flow,
Thermodynamics, and Life. This paradigm shows the scientific basis for progress and evolution that the creationists would like to say is so unlikely it must be divine. In addition, it explains complexity on the basis not of computer simulations but of energy itself. As powerful as the evolutionary perspective is, we believe we make a strong case that complexity’s origins are energy based, and that reproduction with variation is a special case of a more general phenomenon. However, this general phenomenon, based on thermodynamics second law, is natural not divine. That said, we are in no way hostile to spiritual perspectives: indeed, we believe the view presented in Into the Cool has the potential to bring science and religion into a new unity that goes beyond both the blind faith and wishful thinking of religion and the overly mechanical perspective of science. Please participate in this discussion of these important scientific and cultural issues.
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The concepts presented in, "Into the Cool" are surely fundamental and essential to anyone seeking a well-rounded understanding of the forces that drive chaos toward organization and complexity and that address the age old question of how life arose. There are other books that address the question of what is life and what purpose does it serve in the grand scheme? "The Way of the Cell" by Franklin Harold is an example. Harold's book, Into the Cool, and a couple of others underlie my lifelong journey to better understand the meaning of life. I can hardly wait for your next book, "Purpose of Life!"
ReplyDeleteA. Goldstein
"Into the Cool" is such a wonderful book. I have enjoyed reading it and re-reading it.
ReplyDeleteI wonder, though, if thermodynamics is painting itself into a difficult corner by continuing to define everything in terms of entropy. Prigogine was forced into the absurd term "negentropy" to propose a positive, energy-enhancing process. And Cool winds up suggesting that evolution proceeds by reducing entropy gradients.
Suggesting that "up" is the reduction of "down" is a difficult image to get across to the average human who needs to understand energy flows as part of the nature of the world....
Have you come up with an easier description in "Purpose?" Suggesting that the purpose of life is to reduce entropy gradients seems to me a bit like looking into the wrong end of a telescope.... even if the view from both directions is still the same universe.
Thanks again for Cool. It is the clearest book on modern scientific thought I have come across. After reading "A Briefer History of Time" I found myself wishing that Stephen Hawking had known more thermodynamics...
Paul Squassoni
Thanks for the clarity of 'Into the Cool' - I have been working for a number of years on the cultural implications of the science of Gaia Theory and this reworking of the second law is the clearest response I've found to the 'teleological' accusation!
ReplyDeleteOn the theme of 'purpose', I was reminded of a lovely quote from an Alan Watts essay. "Tao and Wu-Wei' on the confusion brought about by seeking a purpose in life: 'You see yourself as a purpose seeking creature, but realize that there is no purpose for the existence of such a creature. In relation to everything except your own preservation, you are marvelously futile. Your aim is to preserve and perpetuate yourself, but in the larger context of the universe there is no reason, no purpose for this aim.'
I like the catchphrase 'nature abhors a gradient', but as a non-scientist, and in the light of the amazing diversity and complexity that life has generated, I wonder if there is a case to be made for also saying that 'nature adores a gradient'? Certainly, our eleven year old daughter squeals with delight when she freewheels down a hill faster than she's done before!
I look forward to the next book. Many thanks.
Peter Horton
Wonderful book that I'm still digesting. Implications are astounding. This puts a whole new perspective on consciousness in general and my readings by Ken Wilbur, Steve McIntosh, G.I. Gurdjieff, David Hawkins, and many others. And it certainly helps to bridge science and religion. My hat is off to you for your remarkable insights.
ReplyDeleteSteve Funderburk
When can we expect "The Purpose of Life" to be published?
ReplyDeleteI'm also looking for "The Purpose of Life" - Amazon has it listed but unavailable.
ReplyDeleteI just "discovered" your book while perusIng in the library. I am so glad I did, Several friends since have received the link to read your online excerpts here, and I just bought my own copy!
ReplyDelete.
I have often pictured in my mind the massive protein which I studied for my independent project in grad school, as a ball of electrically charged wire with a electron sinks at it's certain critical active sites. The energy is distributed all over but in its particular, specific variety of electron holding capacity all around of course not static as the molecule undergoes allosteric change ... I believe these latter conditions altogether can be described as a gradient as you have described . Is that correct? I am enjoying you book INTO THE COOL, tremendously. Thank you.
I am anxiously awaiting my copy of this book. I discovered it while reading Margulis and Sagan's "What Is Sex" where the concept of non-equalibrium thermo dynamics appears early on in the text.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many reasons why this idea interests me but I'll mention just one.
I am a gardener. When ever I plant a garden, the first thing I do is locate and mark the contour lines of the land I plan to cultivate. I then dig swales along these lines. As water flows down the gradient (hill) it gets trapped in the swales and soaks into the beds (and the subsoil under the garden as a whole).
This method slows erosion and decreases the need to bring water to the garden. I think what I am doing is the same thing being described in this book-slowing entropy while using the very flow that entropy is. I can think of all sorts of other places where this happens.
I am very excited about this whole idea.