[JAK]

Originally Posted by Steve Hanson

1. Awareness is the hallmark of life and is an action of living things.
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Careful ... When a bacterium bumps into an object and switches direction, is that awareness? Is grass aware? Is DNA aware? Is viral RNA aware?

Or do you suggest that "life" does not begin until awareness begins? Jellyfish have nerve cells. Is that sufficient? If not, what level is sufficient - reptilian brain? mammilian brain? dog brain? dolphin brain? human brain?

Originally Posted by Steve Hanson

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2. Is action a result of something attempting to achieve equilibrium?
If so, that would seem to imply that awareness is an activity that results from something being out of equilibrium.
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Given the tendency for the universe to move toward "heat death" (maximum entropy), a strong case was made by Erwin Schrodinger in the 1940s ("What is Life?") that life must climb toward "negative entropy" (greater order) to survive. At maximum entropy (maximum equilibrium and chaos), no "work cycles" are possible, so life (and awareness) cannot exist (Stuart Kauffman, 1990s).

Originally Posted by Steve Hanson

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3. Since there is so much action occuring in the universe, it would seem that something is constantly forcing it out of equilibrium, equilibrium being basically stillness. It would also seem to imply that whatever that is, it's happening at the smallest scale and it's happening all the time.

Gravity appears to move oppositely to entropy. As interstellar gas condenses, stars (high energy sources) are formed. Essentially, resources go from relatively disordered, low energy sources (high entropy) to well ordered, complex, systematic, high energy sources (low entropy). Of course, at that point, they emit electromagnetic radiation, so they begin wasting away toward greater entropy. The question of infinite expansion of the universe verses cyclical expansions/contractions (quasi steady state, I believe may be the term for it) becomes the crux of the issue of life in the future.