Evolution and the Second Law of Thermodynamics

by Granville Sewell

Abstract—This is a follow-up to my Fall 2000 article in The Mathematical Intelligencer, entitled "A Mathematician's View of Evolution", and my published response to Critics, "Can ANYTHING Happen in an Open System?". In these papers, and in the current one, I argue that the underlying principle behind the second law of thermodynamics is that natural forces do not do macroscopically describable things which are extremely improbable from the microscopic point of view, and that this principle seems to have been violated by the development of intelligent life on Earth.

The full paper is available below:
Evolution and the Second Law of Thermodynamics

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