Changes

:You make a good point that irreversibility is an unavoidable consequence of the Second Law. There is no such thing as a truly reversible process and all processes generate entropy. But your claim that "order ''always'' goes to disorder; complex ''always'' goes to simple" is absurd. More ordered/"complex" materials can be formed through [[work]]. ("Simple" and "complex" do not have rigorous thermodynamic definitions, by the way.) Otherwise every single ordered object would have to have existed existed exactly as it is since the beginning of time, or have existed in a larger or more ordered form. Organisms gain energy - the capacity do do work - by eating, respiring, photosynthesizing, or otherwise absorbing energy from their surroundings. This allows them to become more ordered or more "complex," but this is not in violation of the the Second Law because during their processes of converting energy and exerting work, net entropy is generated. --[[User:Randall7|Randall7]] 23:57, 12 June 2012 (EDT)

:You make a good point that irreversibility is an unavoidable consequence of the Second Law. There is no such thing as a truly reversible process and all processes generate entropy. But your claim that "order ''always'' goes to disorder; complex ''always'' goes to simple" is absurd. More ordered/"complex" materials can be formed through [[work]]. ("Simple" and "complex" do not have rigorous thermodynamic definitions, by the way.) Otherwise every single ordered object would have to have existed existed exactly as it is since the beginning of time, or have existed in a larger or more ordered form. Organisms gain energy - the capacity do do work - by eating, respiring, photosynthesizing, or otherwise absorbing energy from their surroundings. This allows them to become more ordered or more "complex," but this is not in violation of the the Second Law because during their processes of converting energy and exerting work, net entropy is generated. --[[User:Randall7|Randall7]] 23:57, 12 June 2012 (EDT)

::Randall7, these organisms do take in food, use it as energy, and continue on with their lives, but their status as organisms remains unchanged until they ''cease the work''; when that happens they wither away and die; they decompose, they turn to dust.  Complex to simple, order to disorder.  [[User:Karajou|Karajou]] 00:03, 13 June 2012 (EDT)

::Randall7, these organisms do take in food, use it as energy, and continue on with their lives, but their status as organisms remains unchanged until they ''cease the work''; when that happens they wither away and die; they decompose, they turn to dust.  Complex to simple, order to disorder.  [[User:Karajou|Karajou]] 00:03, 13 June 2012 (EDT)