In the Beginning was Information

hydrodynamic generators, and photo-voltaic elements. The efficiency of thelatter is only about 10 %, and the others are not yet technologically viable.Even in the sunny southern regions of Europe, solar power installations,employing concave mirrors to generate steam (which then drives turbinesfor the production of electricity), require a total mirror surface of 26,000 m 2(2.5 football fields) to generate 1 GWh per annum [X1]. This amounts toone million kilowatt-hours per year – enough to supply 350 homes. Itwould require an enormous area of 68 square kilometres to generate thesame quantity of electricity as that which can be produced by one 1,300Megawatt nuclear power plant. This area could accommodate 150,000urban inhabitants.Wind-driven power plants also require a lot of space. It would require 800to 900 windmill towers of 150 metres to equal the energy production ofone 1,300 Megawatt nuclear plant. Four chains of such windmills separatedby a distance of 400 metres would extend over a distance of 80 km.A3.2.2 Utilisation of Energy in Biological Systems (Photosynthesis)Photosynthesis is the only natural process by means of which large quantitiesof solar energy can be stored. Requiring only carbon dioxide (CO 2 ),water (H 2 O), and small quantities of certain minerals, it is the fundamentalprocess for supplying the energy which plants need for growth and reproduction.The organic substances produced by plants are the primarysource of nutrition and energy for all heterotrophic 25 organisms whichcannot utilise photosynthesis directly. It can truthfully be stated that photosynthesisis the primary source of energy for all life processes and it alsoprovides most of the usable energy on earth. All fossil fuels and raw mate-25 Heterotrophic cells are cells which require complex nutrients like glucose andamino acids for constructing their vital macro-molecular compounds and to providethe necessary energy. On the other hand, there are the so-called phototropic cellswhich are photosynthetically active and can thus store chemical energy by the directconversion of light energy.Figure 43: The four kinds of order. The entity “order” which characterises systemscan only be described verbally and not mathematically. We can distinguishbetween order achieved by means of natural laws, and intentional order. Structureswhich figure in physical systems can only be maintained as long as the gradientsresponsible for their existence (e.g. temperature difference), are active. Such anordering cannot be stored and thus does not refer to a possible evolution. In thelower part of the diagram ordered systems which are without exception based onsome plan are listed. In these cases information is either involved directly, or thereare structures which originated through information.229