According to the second law of thermodynamics, a closed or isolated system will always go through an irreversible process characterised by entropy increase. And increase in entropy will eventually lead to stagnation or even death and disintegration of an organism or the system when its entropy reaches maximum. Only an open system, which is in continued contact and has interaction with its surroundings, can prevent its entropy from increasing.  For a living organism, this means eating, breathing and exchange of information. For an economy, it has to be an open economy which encourages free trade, free flow of information and free movement of people. This argures well for China's open door policy. Likewise, an open mind is better than a closed mind because an closed mind means that the brain's neuronal connectivity will be gradually decreased when its entropy continuously increases, resulting in a tragic loss of intelligence.