
Why hasn’t evolution dealt with the inefficiency of ageing? - jonbaer
https://aeon.co/ideas/why-hasnt-evolution-dealt-with-the-inefficiency-of-ageing
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ksaj
Life itself exists entirely contrary to the thermodynamic arrow of time. That
law essentially states that over time, entropy tends to increase.

Life itself, by definition, is a temporary trend away from increasing entropy.
Cells organize and do things within and to their environment to lower entropy.
They cannot grow or multiply or evolve except when they are acting in
opposition to the thermodynamic arrow of time.

But the Law of Thermodynamics won't fail in this process, and eventually the
cell's ability to counteract (yet never actually negate) it absolutely does
cause every cell to fail eventually.

Therefore, aging and dying will be with us forever. At least until we find a
way to deny and counteract the effects inherent to thermodynamics. And that
would be a whole lot of work since nature is entirely against us on that one.

Also, we don't even know what causes life. We can mix all the chemicals and
zap it just so, and we have only ever failed to spark new life into existence.
Referring to aging as an inefficiency completely ignores the amazing feat that
life is in the first place. Aging is the buildup of failures within the anti-
thermodynamic efficiency we have evolved so far.

Let me know if you're interested in the Wolfram Alpha friendly math behind it.
Or the chemical processes that are relevant to it.

