"Guy Hoelzer"  wrote in message
news:c7rcpp$kpe$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org...
> in article c7ph35$1h7$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org, Jim Menegay at
> jimmenegay{at}sbcglobal.net wrote on 5/10/04 8:25 PM:
[Tim's examples of self organization?]
> >> * Introducing seeds of a living system to a new environment;
> >
> > This may increase or decrease the rate of entropy generation.  Look
> > at Daisyworld.  If the white daisies predominate, the planet's
> > albedo is increased over the level of a dead planet - thus slowing
> > the universe's increase in entropy.
>
> Your conclusion is false.  Reflection has no effect on the level of
> universal entropy.

I agree with what you say about reflection and entropy, but
I think you have misunderstood the example.  Lovelock's Daisyworld
was gray in the lifeless state.  It absorbed half of the incident radiation
and reflected half.  But if Daisyworld has a lot of white daisies, the
planet, including its flora, absorbs a smaller fraction of the radiation
and reflects a larger fraction.  Hence, as compared to the dead gray
world, this living world will transform less light to heat.

Of course, you can add a little realism by making the daisies off-white
so that they can absorb a fraction of the sunlight for their own growth
needs.  In this case, the flora does generate entropy, whereas the
nonexistent flora on a dead planet would not.  But the planet as a
whole generates less entropy.  Tim's answer to my dS/dt question
makes it clear that he is talking about the planet, not the biota.
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