Entropy - Notes

If you ever thought that odds are always stacked against you and things never go as you wish, Anything that can go wrong, went wrong when you were hoping it won't. Say hello to Entropy, a force you will be surprised that is so fundamental to all that we experience and drives many of the problems we face and governs everybody’s life. And once you understand the basic universal laws you can get a better hold of your life and bring order structure and stability to your life. 

I came across entropy in the recent books I read — “ The Origin Story” and “Deep Simplicity”. 

Entropy is a law in physics but when applied to our life and society it can be visualised as a tendency. 

Can you really predict anything?

Imagine that you take a box of puzzle pieces and dump them out on a table. In theory, it is possible for the pieces to fall perfectly into place and create a completed puzzle when you dump them out of the box. But in reality, that never happens because for one right ordered state there are infinite numbers of unordered states. And the odds of getting an unwanted outcome is always high. https://jamesclear.com/entropy

If a pack of 52 cards is shuffled, what are the odds that the cards coming to its initial states if you keep shuffling? Sure after some time, it may come to its initial state but it may take 10?2 seconds. BTW Universe is only 101?seconds old.

The second law of thermodynamics states that the total entropy of an isolated system always increases over time.

Energy of any type disperses from being localized to becoming spread out*, if it is not constrained. https://entropysite.oxy.edu/entropy_isnot_disorder.html

Entropy, the measure of chaos and randomness in a system keeps always increasing with time. Misfortune, accidents, poverty, famine is nobodies fault, it's the very nature of the universe that life has problems. https://www.edge.org/response-detail/27023

Good news is you can control Entropy with energy and information. 

You can always arrange the cards, and complete the puzzle by intentional interventions, you will never automatically get a fit body, clean house, good job, happy family or a good life, if you want to stay fit you have to put in great efforts to do so, to keep a relationship from breaking, you have to intervene by bringing simplicity, structure, discipline, information, and communication. 

Non-living object surrenders to entropy by burning themselves out of existence, as stars burn to death by burning all its protons, ice melts or wood burns to ashes. while first living single-cell organisms fought entropy by seeking external energy to maintain the state of complexity. Different molecules inside cell took upon different roles(Mitochondria- a powerhouse, nucleus- genetic material, membrane- city wall) to act as a single entity with a purpose to live and replicate. It derives energy & information from its surrounding to use it to maintain the complex structure and protect itself from evaporating out of existence. 

So Energy and information means less entropy, more order, and certainty. 

“The … ultimate purpose of life, mind, and human striving: to deploy energy and information to fight back the tide of entropy and carve out refuges of beneficial order.”

— Steven Pinker