The Entropy Phenomenon: To Efficiently Create Chaos, Requires Some Order

The whole universe works to a single directive, One Goal. To spread energy. Dan Brown in his 2017 novel, Origin, beautifully places the cornerstone of the entire plot on the single-most fundamental law of nature ~ Increasing Entropy. Entropy as defined is the measure of disturbance in the nature. Go back to the beginning – The Big Bang, an energetic dissipation in all directions. Or take a classic example, a hot cup of coffee on a counter will always cool down with time, dissipating its heat to other molecules in the room, bringing us to the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

“The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that the state of entropy of the entire universe, as an isolated system, will increase over time.”

Ergo Nature promotes Chaos. World is full of continuously increasing disorder. It’s the law by which it works and the last one that remains. Now since this is carved in stone, why is it that we keep on running after creating order. The mere concept of chaos and disturbance sends most of us in high drive to control it and restore order which is absurd, because life not only obeys entropy but that life began because of it. Which part of it makes us fight the inevitable?

Chaos and Disturbance represent Uncertainty, hitting us with the fact that the things around are not in our control. Therefore, forcing us to focus our energy into creating a system or a plan which will help us foretell and thereafter, control the unpredictable future. Sounds ludicrous, right? (AI Enthusiasts, ignore it please). Let’s talk in numbers - 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, the odds of obtaining an orderly state isn’t something like 100 to 1, it’s more like trillions upon trillions upon trillions to 1. So, unless you hit that jackpot probability, the energy you lose in trying to force it to happen will leave you open to negative emotions.

So how does nature manage chaos? Amongst all the disorder, how does it build a sustainable system that supports life?

‘Nature – in an effort to promote disorder – creates little pockets of order. These pockets are structures that escalate the chaos of a system, and they thereby increase entropy’. Think about examples of molecules organizing themselves – a tornado vortex, a rippled riverbed, a snowflake – all structured in a fashion to maximize their efficiency in dissipating energy.

“Nature doesn’t oppose the disturbance, rather it complements the same”

Uncertainty is the basic nature of entropy and just like all other life forms on this planet, we also get our share of energy to dissolve back into the system. It’s upon us to decide the gains we want to keep for us and the efficiency with which we give back. Things break down, life always becomes less-structured, ancient ruins crumble and sandcastles do get washed away. Instead of getting consumed by the desire to maintain the present and predict the future, create channels that carries the strength to repair the worn-out systems.

“Your coffee is going to run cold, best thing you can do is be prepared with a power source to heat that baby up again!”

Source and inspiration : Origin by Dan Brown.