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Life is not a stochastic process. It is an organic process. Neverthless there must be a net flow of energy through the life system so it follows the law of entropy as a system. In fact, steam engines do the same; so do rain clouds and stars. Life is a willful thing once it achieves a certain level of organization, and this should prove that all the attributes are potentially present in the constituents of life. The attributa potentia are present in atoms, in protons, in electrons, in the carriers of electromagnetic force--photons, and in carriers of other forces such as gravity. It's all there, has been there all along and will be there long after our sun cools to a cold, dark lump and we are frozen to near absolute zero.

If your post at 1907 had preceded mine at 1902, I would have pinged you:

Life is a willful thing once it achieves a certain level of organization, and this should prove that all the attributes are potentially present in the constituents of life. The attributa potentia are present in atoms, in protons, in electrons, in the carriers of electromagnetic force--photons, and in carriers of other forces such as gravity.

That is a statement of faith: "someday a physical explanation will be given for everything."

Life is a willful thing once it achieves a certain level of organization, and this should prove that all the attributes are potentially present in the constituents of life. The attributa potentia are present in atoms, in protons, in electrons, in the carriers of electromagnetic force--photons, and in carriers of other forces such as gravity. It's all there, has been there all along and will be there long after our sun cools to a cold, dark lump and we are frozen to near absolute zero.

Let's analyze these statements.

(1) "Life is a willful thing once it achieves a certain level of organization." Granted. But you gloss over the problem of how it gets organized. It seems the attributa potentia ["AP"] are not the cause of the organization. For the AP can be anything, anytime. They are more like the building blocks, or the material, out of which systems both living and non-living are constructed. And what these "AP guys" do basically, following their own instincts I imagine, is simply follow the physical laws. So the question then becomes: Are the physical laws information-rich enough to produce biological behavior? It would appear that the answer to this question is: NO.

Plus i suppose i could mention that to attribute will to what is here an abstraction or totally inexact generalization (or as Yockey might put it, to an algorithm) is to engage in anthropomorphism.

(2) The AP have "been there all along, and will be there long after our sun cools to a cold dark lump...." But there's nothing in this observation to show how they become other than a stochastic process.

(3) Jeepers! You predict the final outcome of our universe here! How am I to understand this as other than a religious statement?

So much to do, so little time.... Thanks for writing, RightWhale.