Mohtalim

May 2002 Q&A

Sean Klisiewecz, (no location given): Hi, how are you Cigarette Smoking Man; sorry never watched the X-files so much as all that - but as it is I saw you on the Skeptical Enquirer thingy on the Discovery Channel. Anyhow, wanted to ask you a question. So, here it goes:

According to the 2nd or 3rd law, can't remember for sure, of thermodynamics, the nature of things is to become more disorganized. My question is - then why is there 'life', well, organized life, which clearly flies in the face of natural law. I ain't no holy roller sir, but this is a question that I often struggle with. What do you think? I would be surely interested to know.

Cigarette Smoking Man: For starters, life may not be as well organized as it would seem. In many ways it is pretty chaotic. But as I understand it, the second law - I think it's the second - is dealing with a time line so vast as to be hard to imagine, billions and billions of years. Many recombinations can occur within the long slow process of destructuring. I don't think life on our little planet contradicts that process.