Ecological Validity,Representative Design,and Correspondence Between Experimental Task Constraints and Behavioral Setting: Comment on Rogers,Kadar, and Costall (2005)

More than 20 years ago, Swenson (1988) Swenson, R. 1988. Emergence and the principle of maximum entropy production: Multi-level system theory, evolution, and non-equilibrium thermodynamics.. Proceedings of the 32nd annual meeting of the International Society for General Systems Research, 32: 32 [Google Scholar] proposed and elaborated the Law of Maximum Entropy Production (LMEP) as the missing piece of physical or universal law that would account for the ubiquitous and opportunistic transformation from disordered, or less ordered, to more highly ordered states. Given Boltzmann's (1974) Boltzmann, L. 1974. “The second law of thermodynamics”. In Theoretical physics and philosophical problems, Edited by: Bush, S. G. Boston: Reidel. (Original work published 1886) [Google Scholar] interpretation, the Second Law of Thermodynamics has generally been interpreted as a “law of disorder.” Schrödinger (1945) Schrodinger, E. 1945. What is life?, New York: Macmillan.  [Google Scholar] and Bertalanffy (1952) had shown, however, that the Second Law, viewed from the classical perspective of Clausius (1865) Clausius, R. 1865. Ueber verschiedene fur die anwendung bequeme formen der haupt gleichungen der mechanischen warmtheorie.. Annalen der Phys. und Chem., 7: 389–400.  [Google Scholar] and Thomson (1852) Thomson, W. 1852. On the universal tendency in nature to the dissipation of mechanical energy. Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, 4: 304–306. [Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar], was not anathema to order. Ordered flow, including life, was permissible as long as it produced enough entropy to compensate for its own internal entropy reduction. The central problem remained, however: If the spontaneous production of order was “infinitely improbable,” as Boltzmann had surmised, then why were ordered systems such a fundamental and characteristic property of the visible world? LMEP provided the answer: Order production is inexorable because order produces entropy faster than disorder. In Swenson (1989d) Swenson, R. 1989d. Gauss-in-a-box: Nailing down the first principles of action. Perceiving Acting Workshop Review, 5: 60–63. (Technical Report of the Center for the Ecological Study of Perception and Action) [Google Scholar], LMEP was given expression as a precise law that could be demonstrated in falsifiable, experimental, physical terms. In Swenson and Turvey (1991) Swenson, R. 1991a. “End-directed physics and evolutionary ordering: Obviating the problem of the population of one”. In The cybernetics of complex systems: Self-organization, evolution, and social change, Edited by: Geyer, F. 41–60. Salinas, CA: Intersystems Publications.  [Google Scholar], LMEP was tied explicitly to the progressive emergence of living things with their perception–action capabilities.