Life from the Viewpoint of Information ()
ABSTRACT
We
shall consider the relationship between life and entropy from the viewpoint of
information. Firstly, as long as life is alive, it tries to keep the order of
its body. In contrast, inanimate materials quickly become in equilibrium. Life seems
to have a special nature. However, since life is an open system, the
maintenance of the order of the living body does not conflict with the second
law of thermodynamics. Living life maintains its order using information and
energy from the outer world. Secondly, due to the second law of thermodynamics,
it is impossible to preserve information permanently. How can living organisms
preserve such information? The key feature of living organisms is that there
are two phases: life and death. Natural selection uses both life and death.
When life is alive, life proliferates and retains genetic information. When
life dies, its body is rapidly degraded and genetic information is lost. Both
of them increase the number of advantageous genes for survival and eliminate
disadvantageous genes for survival. In conclusion, it was confirmed that
neither the maintenance of order in living body using information and energy
nor the preservation of information by natural selection is inconsistent with
the second law of thermodynamics.
Share and Cite:
Kotani, K. (2019) Life from the Viewpoint of Information.
Open Journal of Philosophy,
9, 503-511. doi:
10.4236/ojpp.2019.94031.
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