Biological organisms are open systems as they exchange energy E, information Inf and mass m with their environment (Fig. 1). They achieve the degree of spaciotemporal order (infrastructure) necessary for survival through the flow of metabolic free energy ΔG. To maintain this order and a steady-state (a dynamic equilibrium) requires that the rate of entropy S production inside the open system dS _i / dt is balanced by the rate of external entropy S _e production as shown in Fig. 1: