Can higher entropy production ever be a good thing for a living cell?
Entropy production is entropy increase due to irreversible processes in the system. In living systems produced entropy must be exported to environment. Stronger interaction with environment and/or more complex energy transductions in the living system are associated with higher level of entropy production. Evolutionary more advanced organisms, such as mammals, in most cases and situations maintain considerably higher entropy production than reptiles. After death entropy is increased of course, but entropy production becomes smaller and smaller. At equilibrium, which can be considered as thermodynamic death of any system, entropy production is equal to zero, despite entropy being maximal. For living cell or organism lower entropy production is associated with time of privation, while higher entropy production is associated with time of opulence. We are not an exception. For us it is still the time of opulence, because total entropy production by mankind and entropy production per person
