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Chronological Thread  
  • From: "georg parlow" <g.parlow@gmx.at>
  • To: <p.osmond@unsw.edu.au>, "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc:
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] entropy and PC yields - does permaculture defythe laws of physics?
  • Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2004 12:20:00 +0100

WARNING: philosophy ahead!

I used to think that PC is a way to ward off or at least delay entropy's
inevitable triumph. PC keeps things lush and green and going, while plowing
and spraying and irrigating will in not so far future turn the land into
desert - which I perceived as a high-entropy state. Underlying this position
was an assumed polarity, something like life versus death, or construction
versus destruction, or increasing complexity versus decreasing complexity.

Today I have a different view, mostly thanks to some aside statements of
Lynn Margulis in "Acquiring Genomes: A Theory of the Origin of Species".
Today I see this:

Life is a servant to entropy, or put the other way around: entropy is the
purpose of life. Life speeds up entropy, because entropy gains a small
percentage of all available energy in every transformation process - and
there are much more transformations happening due to a living animal, than a
dead one. Also this whole huge rock we call earth is stored energy. If it is
a dead planet, most of the energy just gets shifted about a bit until it is
all flat and boring. If the surface is covered by this slimy film we call
life, things keep moving, minerals are mined, chemical reactions abound, and
even the mere mechanical forces at play (erosion et al) arent any less
active, quite the opposit, for the dirt washes down the slope and we dig it
back up, the house breaks down and we build it up again.

Life always pays ud for serving it's purpose with good gut-feelings, like
eating and sex feel good because they serve life. If entropy is the obvious
and only direction this universe is (currently) heading, obviously we
receive incentives in serving this. That is the reason doing PC feels so
great in my guts and cells.



* * *
Georg Parlow
mailto: g.parlow@zartbesaitet.net
persönlich: http://zartbesaitet.net/gp
Berufung: http://zartbesaitet.net
Post: A-1230 Wien, R.Zellergasse 70/4/1


Das Buch: "Zart besaitet"
Untertitel: "Selbstverständnis, Selbstachtung und Selbsthilfe
für hochempfindliche Menschen"
ISBN: 3-9501765-0-0
erhältlich: www.festland-verlag.com





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