The Entropy of Everything

When I was studying mechanical engineering as an undergraduate and graduate student, the subject that interested me most was thermodynamics, a branch of physics and chemistry related to energy and how it is transferred and how it changes between different forms. I was fascinated by not only the technical side of thermodynamics but also its philosophical aspects. There is one in particular that seems to be an apt metaphor for life.

First some background. As with gravity, some basic laws describe thermodynamics. Although those laws are complex in their technical details, they are easy to understand in principle. For example, the First Law of Thermodynamics is simply the conservation of energy, something most of us learned in high school science, that energy cannot be created or destroyed but only converted from one form to another, for example solar energy to electricity.

It is the Second Law of Thermodynamics, however, on which I want to focus. The Second Law states that natural processes only run in one direction. For example, a hot cup of coffee will always become cooler without adding energy, say in a microwave. Or that the height of a dropped rubber ball will decrease with each bounce.

Another way to phrase the Second Law is that things tend to become more disordered over time. Although that might sound complicated, the idea is simple. For example, a sand castle will erode due to weather or waves and become simply disordered grains of sand on the beach; a wine glass hitting a hard floor will go from a familiar, ordered shape to disordered shards of glass; the glossy paint on a house will fade over time as weather and sun degrade its ordered molecular structure. A hard sugar cube will dissolve in a cup of coffee and lose its ordered shape.

Scientists and engineers use the term “entropy” to describe this disorder.  As everything inevitably goes from a more ordered state to one less ordered, entropy increases. The idea that disorder (entropy) always increases offers a useful way to view life since over time, everything becomes less ordered—it degrades, it develops problems, it breaks down, etc., and entropy increases. I call this the Entropy of Everything.

One of the best examples is a subset of the Entropy of Everything, the Entropy of Cars: Over time all cars turn to crap. That may sound crude and cynical, but it’s true.  There is a big difference between a shiny new car in a showroom and a beater a dozen years old with faded paint, high oil consumption and other mechanical problems. At some point, the entropy of the car inexorably increases beyond the ability of the owner to tolerate it, and the car ends up on the market or in the junkyard.

It is not just cars that follow that law. The list is endless: electronic devices, appliances, and all the other stuff that ends up at Goodwill or in the dump. And, of course this list includes more than inanimate objects. All living things are subject to it, as well. They decline over time and eventually die, including our pets, our friends, our family members, and ourselves—ashes to ashes and all that. In the long run, everything naturally decays, and entropy always increases, always. Order—including our wellbeing—is artificial and temporary.

The Entropy of Everything applies to more than objects or living things, however. Most of us have experienced situations in which we become part of an organization or group—church, social organization, job—which at first seems ideal, or at least a good experience. That often doesn’t last, however, and reality takes hold. An all-too-common example of this is employment. A job that looks good at first becomes frustrating and often unbearable. A boss, who in the beginning might seem like a pleasant, understanding person, turns into an incompetent jerk or a tyrant. Expectations of raises and promotions evaporate. The decline continues until we quit, are fired, or retire with thoughts that maybe we pissed away our best years for what ends up signifying damned little. I call this the Entropy of Jobs: Over time, jobs turn to crap. There are, of course, exceptions. Some people end up end up with a job they like, and perhaps even a career, working for an organization that values their contribution. From my experience, that is an exception, however. As Thoreau put it nearly two centuries ago, the mass of men live lives of quiet desperation.

The Entropy of Everything applies to nations and civilizations, as well. For example, all that remains of Hohokam civilization in the American Southwest are potshards. Ancient Rome replaced Ancient Greece, and then it, too, fell, with both civilizations leaving their own ruined monuments. The Third Reich did not last a thousand years but only a dozen. Yeats captured the idea when he wrote, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold:”

Those bruised by love might contend that all relationships turn to crap over time. That obviously isn’t true, although time and proximity tend to erode the romance, passion, and sense of adventure that two people carry into a relationship. Nevertheless, while that aspect of the Entropy of Everything, which I call the Entropy of Relationships, may not be universal, statistics support the general concept. For example, in the U.S., nearly half of first marriages end in divorce, as do two thirds of second marriages. And those numbers don’t reflect couples who reluctantly stay together for other reasons such as fear, money, children, or simply resignation.

Just because increasing disorder is the natural tendency of things, that doesn’t mean one can’t fight back and at least slow it down. You can assiduously maintain your car. You can regularly repaint your house. You can stop smoking, exercise, and eat right to nurture your health. You can focus on open, respectful communication with your spouse or partner and seek opportunities for passion. You can accept with a light heart and sense of the absurd the reality that no business enterprise works well—just keep your resume and list of references up to date. You can vote, speak out, and demonstrate against government policies you don’t like.

In the end, though, disorder always increases one way or another. And while we can’t repeal the Entropy of Everything, we can enjoy watching it play out in our lives and in the world.