THE
FOLLOWING IS QUOTED FROM BERGAN EVANS
ON NORBERT WEINER, NUCLEAR PHYSICIST
The second concept Wiener has to
establish is that of entropy. Probability is a mathematical
concept, coming from statistics. Entropy comes from physics. It is
the assertion-- established logically and experimentally-- that the
universe, by its nature, is "running down", moving toward a state
of inert uniformity devoid of form, matter, hierarchy or
differentiation.
That is, in any given situation,
less organization, more chaos, is overwhelmingly more probable than
tighter organization or more order.
The tendency for entropy to increase
in isolated systems is expressed in the second law of
thermodynamics-- perhaps the most pessimistic and amoral
formulation in all human thought.
It applies however, to a closed
system, to something that is an isolated whole, not just a part.
Within such systems there may be parts, which draw their energy
from the whole, that are moving at least temporarily, in the
opposite direction; in them order is increasing and chaos is
diminishing.
The whirlpools that swirl in a
direction opposed to the main current are called "enclaves". And
one of them is life, especially human life, which in a universe
moving inexorably towards chaos moves towards increased order.
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