If you think about it, heat is really *weird*.
Instead of regarding it as a first-class concept of physics, see it for what it is – a statistical aggregate of individual particle motions. And then consider the requirements of a life form:
You need raw materials of various kinds, to make more of yourself, and repair damage. You need to get rid of garbage from that construction. You need energy to power the work, and for auxiliary activities like moving around. You need an absence of various harmful substances and phenomena. All logical enough, from first principles.
But you also, for some reason, need constant gentle massaging by all the particles of whatever substances surround you. Not only that, but the vigour of the massage has to remain constantly within a narrow range. Too much, *or* too little, and the organism dies.
What?!
Instead of regarding it as a first-class concept of physics, see it for what it is – a statistical aggregate of individual particle motions. And then consider the requirements of a life form:
You need raw materials of various kinds, to make more of yourself, and repair damage. You need to get rid of garbage from that construction. You need energy to power the work, and for auxiliary activities like moving around. You need an absence of various harmful substances and phenomena. All logical enough, from first principles.
But you also, for some reason, need constant gentle massaging by all the particles of whatever substances surround you. Not only that, but the vigour of the massage has to remain constantly within a narrow range. Too much, *or* too little, and the organism dies.
What?!
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