I didn’t say, or imply, that rot was a terrible thing. Better rot that being buried up to our eyeballs in dead stuff. It was just used as an example to show that the 2nd law does apply to living, or better, previously living organisms.
The length of the lifespan is irrelevant. Compared to insects and small mammals, humans and some larger mammals have incredibly long lifespans. Other animals have longer ones yet, but they do age.
The point is, is that degeneration still occurs within an organism that is still living. Metabolism may be similar to evolution in appearing to work against the 2nd law, or maybe actually working against it for short periods of time, but ultimately, it can’t continue.
Those articles about senescence are interesting. One of the things that has occasionally come up in the evo debates is the longevity of man before the Flood. The Biblical record indicates a far greater lifespan. Perhaps it’s possible that humans once had this ability and lost it through one of those harmful mutations that’s known to occur. Perhaps the characteristic was lost, or maybe it got turned off and is now part of what is referred to as *junk DNA*; that stuff nobody sees any use for. Either way, it places the whole issue in another light; one of it being possible instead of a topic of mockery.
Degeneration may, but does not necessarily, occur in living organisms, at least not during any span we are able to measure.
Second Law is simply irrelevant in this context.