Complexity and entropy: human creativity vs the heat-death of the universe
(This is Ch 13 of “The Retroactive Universe”)
Entropy, Complexity and Life
According to one of the most basic laws of physics, known as "the second law of thermodynamics", the amount of disorder - or "entropy" - in the universe is constantly increasing. However, this does not mean that order or organization or complexity cannot increase anywhere in the universe - it can, but only at the expense of a yet greater net increase in disorder in the universe as a whole. Thus the net entropy of the universe as a whole always increases, even for processes which cause a local increase of order and complexity.
This means that the entropy of the universe was at a minimum at the big bang, and has increased since then. However, looking at the universe at its different stages, one is struck by the increase in order and complexity, rather than in the increase in chaos.
Guided by gravitational attraction, planets are formed from chaotic combinations of gases, so that the resulting planet has a much more complex structure than the material it was formed from. Nevertheless, when all the subtle aspects of the process of planetary formation and its effect on the surrounding space are taken into account, it can be shown that it gives rise to a net increase in entropy. (Furthermore, although the action of the gravitational force leads to greater order, so that it would seem that order is increasing in the universe, and was at a minimum at the big bang, when taking into account the expansion of space-time which is an unavoidable consequence of the same law of nature which 'produces' gravity, one can see that entropy always increases.)
Living organisms grow in complexity as they proceed from seed to plant, or by turning plant food into complex cells, or developing from sperm and egg to beings with brains. Our planet, due to the life on it, seems therefore to be tending towards increase in order rather than the reverse. However, the earth and the life on it is no less bound by the laws of entropy than any other entity; all the order they experience through growth is due to energy pumped from the sun, and the sun provides this energy from its tremendous hydrogen fusion explosions, explosions which tremendously increase the entropy, totaling an entropy increase far greater than the seeming decrease of entropy which it gives rise to on earth.
Some have compared the universe to a wound-up clock which is slowly running down, having started with a tremendous supply of order which it is granting to its present constituent parts. It would seem, however, that since there was no complex structure to the big bang, but rather a uniform one, the initial state of the universe was not one of order, of a 'wound-up clock', but rather of chaos, disorder, a 'run-down clock'. It thus seems paradoxical that it should contain all the potential for complex order in the universe as it exists today. However, one can see the process of universal development from the big bang to today, and onward, as that of a continual increase in complexity, accompanied by an increase in the total entropy.
The Human Brain
By far the most complex entity known to humanity is the human brain itself. The human brain contains approximately ten billion nerve cells - called "neurons" - and each neuron is connected to very many other neurons. To get an idea of this amount, we quote the following figures: There are twice as many neurons in each human brain than there are humans on this planet. Every day, in each human brain, 10,000 neurons die and are not replaced - a total of 300 million in a lifetime of 90 years - but this is only three percent of the total amount of neurons in the brain. For these 10 billion neurons to form in a human brain in the nine months between conception and birth, on the average one and a half million must form every hour of those nine months - 25,000 every minute[l]!
The complex interactions between neurons has no analogue in any other entity known to man, and even the total complexity of all the stars of our galaxy together is less than that of one human brain - although there are ten times as many stars in the galaxy as there are neurons in one human brain, these stars are not linked to each other in complex interactions as are neurons, and the neurons themselves possess a more complex structure than that do stars[1].
The quantitative difference in complexity between the human brain and any other physical system is so vast that it can possibly give rise to a qualitative difference, with new types of interactions generated by the complexity itself. According to some scientists, phenomena generated by the complexity of the human brain cannot be understood by the reductionist approach - they are not explicable as the result of the interactions of the atoms in the brain.
According to Nobel-Prize winning physiologist Roger Sperry [m]:
"The point is that human nature and these higher kinds of controls in nature don't reduce any more to physical and chemical mechanisms, but have to be reckoned with now in their own form, in their own right. Vital, mental, social and other higher forces, once evolved, become just as real as the evolved forces of molecules and atoms and must be given their due, over and above the elementary physical components."
These types of new forces or phenomena which may arise in a non-deterministic way from complex states of the universe are called 'emergent', and consciousness and free will may be an example.
Wholism and Consciousness
Physics generally treats of the interactions between two otherwise isolated systems. If all entities in the universe interact with each other in a significant manner however, it becomes impossible to define an individual entity. Accordingly, the conclusions drawn by the investigation of phenomena in which the effective linkage is insignificant, may be inapplicable in realms in which this interconnection is stronger. In fact, some scientists claim that the universe is an organic whole, and that any treatment of its fundamental properties which ignores this will lead to faulty conclusions[2]. This would especially be the case where higher-level phenomena such as mental events are concerned.
In a wholistic universe, it is axiomatic that higher level phenomena will emerge as the result of the self-interaction of the universe. Some scientists feel that consciousness is not only a significant aspect of the universe, but it is non-derivable from any of the other forces or phenomena known to science. Indeed, one can speculate that the emergence of self-reflective phenomena such as consciousness might be a fundamental aspect of the workings of a wholistic universe[3].
The Uniqueness of Free-Willed Consciousness
Julian Huxley[4] saw the emergence of moral consciousness as a turning point in the evolutionary process itself:
"It is only through social evolution that the world-stuff can now realize radically new possibilities. Mechanical interaction and natural selection still operate, but have become of secondary importance. For good or evil, the mechanism of evolution has in the main been transferred onto the social or conscious level...The slow methods of variation and heredity are outstripped by the speedier processes of acquiring and transmitting experience...
And in so far as the mechanism of evolution ceases to be blind and automatic and becomes conscious, ethics can be injected into the evolutionary process....it becomes possible to introduce...moral purpose into evolution."
According to Erich Fromm [italics in original][5]:
"....The religious need is rooted in the basic condition of existence of the human species.......the human species can be defined as the primate who emerged at the point of evolution where instinctive determination had reached a minimum and the development of the brains a maximum . This combination.....had never occurred before in animal evolution and constitutes, biologically speaking, a completely new phenomenon".
Using the terminology of Victor Frankl[6], one could say that the human being is unique in that it is driven at its most basic level by "the will to meaning". No other member of the evolutionary chain can be so described - and thus man is qualitatively different than his evolutionary forebears. This qualitative difference may have cosmic implications.
Conscious Evolution
As Huxley pointed out, the mechanism of evolution has ceased to be blind and automatic and has instead become conscious. Indeed, with the ability for manipulation of genes, for causing global ecological changes, destroying planets or making desert bloom, and by reaching into space, humans have become an important factor in the future evolution of life in the universe, and of the physical development of the universe itself.
As human or universal civilization grows, and accelerates the process of the increase of complexity by manufacture, agriculture, increased population, construction of complex machines and computers, there will be a corresponding acceleration in the increase of entropy. At some point, after all the stars have extinguished themselves by burning themselves to stellar ash, or conversely when the galaxies are linked in a universal civilization, the point will be reached at which there is no more raw material to develop, and entropy will begin eating away at the complex structures previously developed, until all order is lost, all complex structures reduced to chaos - the so called 'heat death of the universe'.
Creativity, Acausality, Free Will and Entropy
However, it may be that entropy is not necessarily all powerful, that the heat death of the universe can be avoided.
Generally, in mathematical and logical systems, complex data is constructed from simpler data. However, the amount of actual information in the newly derived result/data cannot be greater than the sum of the amount of information in the original data plus the amount involved in the reasoning process required to arrive at the new data.
That is, one cannot "create" "new information": the total amount of information in the universe remains the same - or decreases as entropy increases.
Computer programs can reach results only if they are given sufficient information, and thus computers are not creative because they can only do what they are programmed to do.
A machine can construct an object which has greater value, utility, beauty than does the sum of its parts, however the end product is still simply the sum of its parts and no more, and likewise all other physical processes.
If there is nothing beyond deterministic and random processes, then all art, philosophy, science, religion, music and so on are determined/random products of the big bang and the laws of nature. All philosophical dialogue becomes somewhat irrational since all discussions and difference of opinion - including heated discussions regarding the possible existence of free will - is a working out of the consequences of the big bang, and all reasoning and creativity is mechanical or random.
True creativity would perhaps seem to be impossible for humans as well, since it demands the production of a result from information which, by definition, is not sufficient to produce that result. Nevertheless, human intuition and creativity seem somehow to be exceptions. The very term 'intuition' means the understanding of something from information which is seemingly insufficient to produce that result, while 'creativity' means the production of something which is greater than the sum of its parts, something beyond the theoretical capability of machines, computers, or the actions of nature.
It may be that the unique ability of humans to create is related to their possession of a free-willed consciousness. If the essence of free-willed consciousness is acausality, then results need not be derived via causal chains of logic from more basic information and perhaps thus "new information" can indeed be "created". In addition, perhaps by the exercise of free-willed consciousness in creative activity, one can also decrease entropy by creating information - a true act of creativity in itself [7]. In this way, human free-willed consciousness can be the unique factor in the universe which is acting to decrease the amount of entropy in it.
Only if there is a free willed consciousness can there be a consciously formed creative act which produces something beyond that which previously existed, and which can engage in meaningful philosophical and ethical dialogue as opposed to reading out a script written by the big bang and directed by the laws of nature.
Universal Integration
It is also possible that just as the emergence of consciousness is associated with the evolution of complex structures such as human brains, the aggregate of consciousness in the universe after an intergalactic civilization is established would reach a quantitative threshold level of complexity which would give rise to a qualitatively new phenomena, the emergence of a new level of being[8]. Perhaps just as free-willed consciousness can through its creative and moral activity act to increase information and order, this higher level of being can be one for which entropy would be no barrier.
A Godelian connection to a Platonic realm of Truth would sallow the human mind to transfer information into the physical universe, increasing its complexity and integration while at the same time decreasing the total entropy.
Moral beings by their united activity would in this way catalyze the development of the universe toward total integration, rather than to the total disintegration of pure entropy predicted by the laws of nature as now known.
Free-willed consciousness acting through creativity and moral activity may be the factor which sustains the universe against its heat death, and which allows the universal purpose to unfold, as well as being the factor which allows the universe to exist at all.
Human Uniqueness
Human beings seem to be unique in various ways.
As Godel indicated, mathematics and mathematical speculation, lead to the possibility that somehow the human mind can perceive truths which are beyond the physical, that the human mind is in some way connected to a transcendant realm of Truth.
Furthermore, these truths cannot be produced by mechanical means, and it would seem that they are not realizeable by non-conscious entities. They are instead presumeably the product of creative thought and intuition, mental processes which cannot be duplicated by deterministic or random processes.
Humans are also unique in that although they know that "is" cannot produce "ought", they nevertheless comprehend the transcendant difference between good and evil; they are moral beings. They are also possesed of a free will which allows them to act in accordance with a moral code rather than according to the dictates of the determined/random universe.
Similarly, humans are unique in that they can engage in creative thought, producing from a given amount of information as input, a result which goes beyond it, something that is not possible for the realm of the deterministic/random. In the same way that free-will is beyond determinism and randomness, so is creative thought.
Creativity, Transcendence, and Genesis
Creating, and moral activity; both are transcendant, and beyond determinism/randomness. In the context of the creation and Eden accounts, of the free-willed conscious being created in the image of its creator, there is a natural link between creation and moral beinghood, between the human and the transcendant 'breath of the divine' which is imbued in him.
The enigmatic last few words of the creation account ("all the works which God created to do."), right before the introduction to the Eden account, are interpreted in traditional sources as implying that the creation is incomplete, and that mankind is challenged to perform that which is necessary to bring it to a proper completion.
The creation and Eden accounts tell of a creator creating a being in its own image, and challenging it to complete the creation[9]. An act of creative will producing beings who can exercise an independent will. A transcendent being creating a being from deterministic/random matter-energy, 'earth', but imbuing it with its own breath, endowing it with a connection to the transcendent realm.
In the creation and Eden accounts we encounter a free-willed conscious transcendent being creating a free-willed conscious being with connection to the transcendent, a creative being in its own right, a moral being which is challenged to follow the correct path, which can then demand of its creator a fidelity to moral standards, as in the immortal challenge addressed to God by the patriarch Abraham: "will the judge of the whole universe not himself do justice?".
The Creation and Eden Accounts
In the creation account the universe begins in a state of chaotic disorder and procedes to a state of order, culminating in the creation of human free-willed consciousness, the factor which allows the universe to develop to greater order and complexity. This created being is then charged with the population of the earth and the harnessing of its power and potential, and as the concluding words of the creation account indicate according to the Midrash and Zohar[10], it is this being which is the factor which was created in order to complete the work of creation itself via its creative activity.
Furthermore, moral beings are to employ their free will to bring a moral order to events, fighting against, reducing, the chaotic and evil forces in the universe.
The final act of creation was the command to humanity to create, to be creative, to complete the creation of the six days. By combating the heat death of the universe via creative acts, humanity maintains the universe itself, so that the creation of humanity is the means whereby the otherwise completed universe is given the ability to maintain itself.
The Eden account describes the same role in the moral realm.
The universe is saved from physical and spiritual chaos and entropy, is sustained as a creative process, by the creative and moral activity of free-willed consciousness. Creation and the emergence of moral beings are thus linked, as the corresponding creation and Eden accounts are linked in Genesis.
The universal development was from chaotic big bang to the emergence of free-willed consciousness, and perhaps from there towards a higher state of being. Parallel to this, in Genesis the development is from chaos to moral beings, which according to traditional mystical sources, is the prelude to the time at which all human consciousness will be united in a higher level of being, to be reintegrated into the original creating consciousness.
[1] It is not inappropriate therefore that the anthropic principle can see in the design for a human being a complete specification for the design of the rest of the universe.
[2] See for example the discussion of Bell's inequality and its ramifications for wholism, and Bohm's ideas regarding the instantaneous interconnection of all the universe.
According to Rambam, the universe as a whole is an organism, and all parts are interconnected. ["Guide"I:72] .
[3]For our purpose however, the mechanism whereby consciousness arises - whether it is an emergent phenomenon or otherwise, and so on - is irrelevant.
[4] Huxley and Huxley [Romanes Lectures] p126.
[5] "To Have or To Be" Erich Fromm
[6] Victor Frankl "Man's Search for Meaning"
[7] [See p. 372-top p373 re: Entropy , in Jammer "Conceptual..."]
[8] See e.g. the writings of DuNuouy, DeChardin, Tipler and Barrow.
[9] The being itself is part of the incomplete creation it must bring to completion, thus it possesses the ability to complete itself.
[10] On the words "which God created to do".