Thermodynamics of Failure and Aging

The purpose of this paper is to present a general theory of aging applicable to any physical structure. No macroscopic structure lasts forever. Humans and animals die, machines deteriorate, components fail and even a rock withers away in time. Nowhere in nature do we find immortality of such structures. Why? We have no general explanation; all our present answers are specific. We state that humans and animals fail from certain biological causes; machines from mechanical causes; components from electrical and thermal causes; rocks from the slow withering of the weather. The underlying reasons why all such structures eventually fail have not been formalized.