petrushka.googol Posted January 25, 2014 Posted January 25, 2014 When a person is sick his immune system is compromised and his physical wear and tear is increased. Is this analogous to a more disordered state as evidenced by an increase in entropy? That is why terminal illness precipitates death faster. Please advise.
Mrs Zeta Posted January 27, 2014 Posted January 27, 2014 It is a matter of how people define the terms. When you are well, you are in a far-from-equilibrium state, your functional complexity and information content are high and entropy is also high. When you are ill, there is a state of reduced functional (but sometimes increased structural) complexity, energy loss continues to be high until it slows down to eventually zero, a point of (physical, but not biological) equilibrium and maximum predictability i.e death.
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