Heated Debate

 Heated debate


The entropic gradiant is a river flowing from a mountain of order, or high density of information, toward an ocean of lower informational density, or much lower order.

The greater the the order, the more heat there is in the system. 

This river flows from high order to low, losing heat in the process, which is the flow of time.

The word entropy implies the opposite of order, high entropy characterizing the ocean in this analogy, low the mountain. 

The choice of the term entropy was a learned or academic ploy that, as a consequence, entails an extra mental processing step each time we think about it. (Rudolf Clausius chose this term in 1865 from the Greek for ‘turning toward’).

We should, perhaps, drop the term, as transition from order to disorder is more explicit. 

However, I think that would be poetically unjust. Entropy is, after all, such a lovely word, and you would not be able to pretend to compliment somebody by congratulating them upon their high entropy.


Aubrey Lieberman

2/16/24 

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