Entropy

Time, for a long time, was considered a construct of the mind. Not really existing outside of our minds. Time being an illusion is a common theme in Buddhist thought. Some philosophers even postulated that time, along with motion, and change were all illusions. Hindus had a concept of wheel of time, considering time as cyclical and consisting of events that repeat.

Modern physics tells us otherwise. We now know that time is a dimension. And based on the special theory of relativity we also know that it is strongly connected to space itself, thus the term space-time (or the space-time continuum). So connected are these two, one can infer that from the point of view of a single photon, (there is no such thing, but go with it) space has 0 size. When a photon crosses the universe, from its point of view it takes no time at all (zero). From our point of view of course, it will take an infinite amount of time. This is what is called time dilation and it is wonderfully explained using the twin paradox.

Another way we know time exists for real is because of Entropy. Entropy is a law that measures a systems progress towards thermodynamic equilibrium. A red hot ball of nickel which is in a higher state of energy than its surroundings will always lose heat in a predictive manner so as to reach room temperature. A closed (or otherwise called isolated) system always evolves towards thermodynamic equilibrium. Once equilibrium is reached that system has reached a state of maximum entropy. Simply speaking, Entropy is a law of nature in which everything (high energy) slowly goes into disorder (equilibrium).

Energy is key here. The more energy a system has the farther away from entropy it is. Want to keep a ball of nickel hot, keep it torched. The only way water will stay up in the tank and now flow down is having valves or taps; in other words, convert the kinetic energy of the water as potential energy.

Macro effects aside (fruit decay, water leveling or a red hot nickel ball losing heat), Entropy can be measured on the sub-atomic state as well. Free neutrons (neutrons not bonded in an atom) will spontaneously undergo beta-decay. Beta decay is a process that allows the atom to obtain an optimal ration of protons to neutrons.

That’s how we know that time has a direction. There is a definite forward and there is a definite backward. Like temperature, living beings can’t see it, but we have an intuitive sense of it. We know if a movie is being played backwards. And we definitely know something is wrong if a ball of nickel gains heat just sitting there.

So anyways. This post was not supposed to be about the physics of entropy or time. The idea was how Entropy can be observed in societies.

A group of humans always stick together and organize themselves automatically and always form a society and create rules for said society. Humans don’t need an external entity to organize, they organize themselves. And I hypothesize on such self-organized societies entropy plays a major role. Given enough time a society will always degenerate. Always. When a society reaches maximum entropy they split themselves into groups. These groups then form their own societies and rules. These new groups can then be said to be in minimum entropy. How else would you explain so many countries, so many religions?

Of course this is until there is external force acting on it. A group that has reached maximum entropy can be put together again if there is a threat to it as a whole. Indeed history is littered with examples of former rival groups getting together to fight a common enemy.

I also think that the more energy (in the form of food, electricity, gas etc.) a group has access to, the more time it will take for that group to degenerate. But in the end entropy will always catch up.

So that’s that actually. I thought it was a good explanation of what we observe in the world. And any problems you observe in a country can be explained by entropy.

One last thought. You know the meaning of life? Or rather what life is? You see the universe is in a constant state of change from a high state of energy (think the Big Bang) to equilibrium (Heat death of the universe). Life is simply in the way