{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,20]],"date-time":"2026-06-20T01:21:30Z","timestamp":1781918490723,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":52,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,2]],"date-time":"2021-06-02T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1622592000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Entropy"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This paper starts from Schr\u00f6dinger\u2019s famous question \u201cwhat is life\u201d and elucidates answers that invoke, in particular, Friston\u2019s free energy principle and its relation to the method of Bayesian inference and to Synergetics 2nd foundation that utilizes Jaynes\u2019 maximum entropy principle. Our presentation reflects the shift from the emphasis on physical principles to principles of information theory and Synergetics. In view of the expected general audience of this issue, we have chosen a somewhat tutorial style that does not require special knowledge on physics but familiarizes the reader with concepts rooted in information theory and Synergetics.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/e23060707","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,2]],"date-time":"2021-06-02T10:38:39Z","timestamp":1622630319000},"page":"707","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":26,"title":["Information and Self-Organization II: Steady State and Phase Transition"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"23","author":[{"given":"Hermann","family":"Haken","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Center of Synergetics, Institute for Theoretical Physics, Stuttgart University, 70550 Stuttgart, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Juval","family":"Portugali","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geography and the Human Environment, The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, School of Geosciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Haken, H., and Portugali, J. 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