Thermodynamically-speaking, the
only difference between animate and inanimate systems is that the animate system receives external forcing. When this forcing is removed, the system will degrade in accordance with the
second law to a
state of
equilibrium. An example of a large, animate system is the
earth, which can be idealized as a type of large
photon mill, where the external forcing comes from, to a large extent, the
sun.
As the animate system is
driven to the
equilibrium state, it will undergo a
free energy change, and will have ever-decreasing amounts of
free energy available to the system for it to carry out
internal work, or
work on its
surroundings, and thus the animate system will ultimately become
inanimate. The
time duration of an animate system in which it changes from animate to inanimate is often referred to as its "persistence".
Fundamentally, an animate system is a system on which work must be done by the surroundings, and which via interaction with its surroundings must be subject to periodical increases of its free energy such that it may perform work in changing its internal configuration, possibly in response to changes in its surroundings.
Reference 1. (a) Animate – Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, 2000.
(b) Animus – EtymOnline.com.
(c) Animate – EtymOnline.com.
2. (a) Ubbelohde, Alfred René. (1947). Time and Thermodynamics, (ch. IX: “Thermodynamics and Life”). Oxford University Press.(b) Ubbelohde, Alfred René. (1954). Man and Energy ... Illustrated, (Section: XIII: Thermodynamics and Life, pg. 183-200, Section: XIV: Thermodynamic Laws and Cognition, pg. 201-09). London: Hutchinson's Scientific & Technical Publications.
2. Sidis, William J. (1920). The Animate and the Inanimate, [PDF], (published in 1925, R.G. Badger).
3. Pauling, Linus. (1970). General Chemistry, (section: "The Nature of Life", pgs. 767-69). New York: Dover.
4. Lahanas, Michael. (c.2010). “
Heron of Alexandra”, MLahanas.de.
Further reading
β Bakewell, Frederick. (1835).
Natural Evidence of a Future Life: Derived from the Properties and Actions of Animate and Inanimate Matter. Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green.
β Toulmin, Stephen E. and Goodfield, June. (1962).
The Architecture of Matter: the Physics, Chemistry, and Physiology of Matter, both Animate and Inanimate, as it has Evolved from the Beginnings of Time. Harper and Row.
External linksβ
Animate (disambiguation) – Wikipedia.