dkomo  wrote or quoted:
> Tim Tyler wrote:
> > dkomo  wrote or quoted:

> >>Dawkins talks about evolution's direction as an improvement in the
> >>adaptive fit of species to the environment.  Is this the same
> >>criterion you're using when you say "having a direction associated
> >>with progressive accumulation of technology for existing and
> >>reproducing?"
> >
> > No.
> >
> > I actually preferred Gould's complexity metric - however poorly 
> > specified Dawkins claimed it was.
> >
> > My preferred metric for measuring evolutionary progress would be the
> > rate at which entropy is degraded by the living system in question.
>
> This is too abstract to be a practical measure.  Sort of like Kolmogorov
> complexity -- everybody loves to talk about it but no one knows how to
> compute it.

To give an example of a practical application, the metric 
suggests that the albedo of a life-containing planet is
likely to get darker as evolution progresses - at least
on the side of the planet that faces the sun.

Several components are involved here - life will get better 
at extracting the resources from radiation - and it will
improve its abilily to invade desserts and polar regions.

As time passes, a living planet is likely to come to 
approximate a black body - since a black body degrades the a 
black body degrades any incident radiation as much as is 
possible.

> Tell me, does a cat degrade entropy at a higher rate than a
> dog?  Or does a human degrade entropy faster than a chimp?

That depends on the environment they are placed in ;-)
-- 
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