Entropy: How This Law of Physics Reveals the Human Condition

Imagine living in a house that naturally got cleaner instead of dirtier. Imagine having a mind that naturally bettered its mental health. Imagine a body that got younger and more beautiful with age. Imagine a garden that weeded itself. Imagine hair that detangled in the wind. Imagine a world where socks paired themselves together in the dryer. Because of a singular law of physics -- entropy -- none of this is the case. Entropy is the gradual decline into disorder, or the lack of order and predictability.

One thing that is fundamental to our universe is that nature is always in a state of decline. This is true in physics, micro and macro biology, technology, relationships, and our personal lives. James Clear’s article Entropy: Why Life Always Seems to Get More Complicated points out that because of Murphy’s law, “ anything that can go wrong, will go wrong...life never seems to just work itself out for us. If anything, our lives become more complicated.” The problem with entropy is that it is always increasing over time. “Sand castles get washed away. Weeds overtake gardens. Ancient ruins crumble. Cars begin to rust. People gradually age. With enough time, even mountains erode and their precise edges become rounded. The inevitable trend is that things become less organized.” Because of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, entropy will never decrease, but always increase. Nothing in life is eternal, except potentially entropy, and it is relentless.

In interviewing friends and family, I asked what entropy means to them.

Me: What does entropy mean to you?

Django: “Why do I wake up with morning breath when I just brushed my teeth?”

Lia: *shows me the inside of her purse*

Leiganna: “Why is my knee hurting again? I just got out of physical therapy!”

Sophie: “I haven’t been able to keep a clean room my entire life. That’s all I have to say about that.”

Carter: “Have you ever had so much to get done that you freak out and just lay down and watch tv for 5 hours?”

Christiana: “We just got yelled at in rehearsal because the dance was messy again... we haven’t done it in a week what do they expect?”

Thomas: "I guess it’s kind of like how I came to college and halfway through the 1st semester said ‘fuck it."

My grandpa: “I want my old hips back.”

Grandma: “My boobs looked better before they sagged.”

Emily: “Anytime I babysit, one kid will hit their head, another will throw their food, and the baby will start screaming all at once. Everything’s fine and then all of a sudden, its chaos.”

Aidan: “When you think about it, it’s kind of weird that stars are slowly dying.”

Django: “Randomly asking Maddie out at 10pm last Tuesday night. That was entropy.”

Dad: “My BMW doesn’t drive like it used to.”

Ben: “Should we talk about climate change?”

Abby: “My clothes are really wrinkled. All the time.”

Molly: “...Where did my socks go?”

Obviously, there are many ways in which life is prone to fall into disorder and randomness. Because of this, one should find awe in the times in life when things simply fall into place. Because of entropy, life on earth is a miracle. Falling in love with someone is a miracle. Looking at a beautiful flower is a miracle. Hardly missing a car accident is a miracle. The fact that math, the laws of nature, architecture, and physics all work out is a miracle. Art can be thought of as a beautiful result of entropy -- it takes random assortments of elements and colors and makes order out of it. Watching a ballet is a beautiful way to observe a kind of entropiless state of nature, although it took a lifetime to develop the seamless movement and months of perfectionist work to prepare for the performance. As Clear says, “beauty is rare and unlikely in a universe of disorder. And this gives us good reason to protect art. We should guard it and treat it as something sacred.” We may never be able to find our socks. And we may never be able to keep our house completely clean, but what we can do is fall in love, design the lives we want out of the craziness we are handed, and look for beauty in every ounce of order and chaos in this haywire universe.

Clear, Jamess. “Entropy: Why Life Always Seems to Get More Complicated.” James Clear, 1 Sept. 2018, jamesclear.com/entropy.