Time&Eternity

168 chapter 3
There are several possible answers to this question: First, when order increases
at a certain place in a system, we are dealing with a local decrease in
entropy that has no effect on the increase in entropy in a system as a whole.
Second, under certain conditions, Poincaré’s Theorem allows the notion of
reverse entropy—i.e., increase in order—for, according to Henri Poincaré,
every isolated system eventually returns to its initial state; it is cyclical. The
period of such a cycle is unimaginably long, to be sure, but finite. Thus, on
the condition of a sufficiently long period of time, a “resurrection” from
cosmic heat death is theoretically possible. A third answer has been formulated
by the “Brussels School,” led by Ilya Prigogine. 286 They have shown
that, far from equilibrium, so-called dissipative structures 287 make developmental
leaps.
This can be understood as follows: Systems that are not in thermodynamic
equilibrium develop toward a final state in which all change ceases.
This targeted end-point is called an “attractor.” For systems that are located
near equilibrium, this development is linear, i.e., with direct proportionality
of forces and effects. For systems that are far from thermodynamic equilibrium,
this development is nonlinear and precisely these systems can be used
to explain the apparently impossible increase in order. The overwhelming
majority of everyday life processes consists of such open systems that exchange
energy and matter with other systems and that are located far from
equilibrium. If these systems are sufficiently far from the state of equilibrium,
they can branch out at a critical so-called bifurcation point. Their development
becomes unstable, and they “leap” into another state that can be
quite well ordered and display new shapes and properties. In this way, diverse
patterns with a large number of bifurcation points can be created.
These complex processes, which can interact and lead to complicated structures,
are called self-organization or autopoiesis. 288 Such developmental
leaps to a higher order occur without violating the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
Viewed as an open system far from equilibrium, the universe is therefore
not on a straight path to heat death. It is instead encountering bifurcation
points continually on its path and thus also the possibility of spontaneous
self-organization of galaxies as well as cells. Because these processes are irreversible,
time appears to have a direction. It remains a question of interpretation
whether this means that the development of entropy and the time arrow
can be regarded as identical. 289 Nevertheless, it seems that the key to understanding
the time arrow lies in the stability properties of complex systems.
Within the framework of chaos research, remarkable results have been
achieved in this regard.