Another area might be in determining the limits of what can occur.
For example, the Second Law of Thermo forbids (statistically) the
existence of "perpetual motion machines." I assume that someone has
already explored the parallels between PP-machines and Prebiotic Evolution,
to see the ways in which accepted principles (for energy, information,...)
are useful in providing both a "negative heuristic" and a "positive
heuristic" for research programs. Yes?
{disclaimer: here I am thinking about responsible applications of
thermo, such as those done by Bradley or Dembski, not the embarassing
"Second Law and macro-E" pseudo-thermo of Henry Morris}
If thermo says "perpetual motion machines" aren't possible, do we bemoan
the difficulties this will cause for the "PP-machine research programs" or
do we just say "how interesting it is, that the universe is this way" ?
Craig R