Learn to swim! || Dreem-WOTW || Entropy

For several centuries now, thanks to Darwin, Newton, Locke and many others, we have been using 'mechanistic model', by which life can be: measured, weighed, scientifically tested and described using mathematical methods.

Not without exception, there are also the laws of nature, which man, with the use of new knowledge, can use to achieve his goals. Needless to say, these goals are usually selfish or so-called 'common good', which sounds better than simply 'I want more'.

By this standard, human history leads from chaos to order, as evidenced by the theory of evolution. Only progress is ahead of us. The current model applies to science, the economy, medicine, education, economics, culture and so on.

And so, in order to break down the concept of entropy in the easiest way would be first law of thermodynamics, which states that the amount of mass-energy in a closed system (and we take the system between the sun and the Earth as such) does not change.

Everything in the physical world is some form of energy that you cannot simply get rid of or add to. But! It is possible to change its state. And this change of state of energy only goes in one direction, as we are already told by the second law of thermodynamics, according to which energy goes from an ordered, useful form to disordered, - unusable energy.

And finally we come to the point - the measure of the growth of this disordered energy is entropy.

So does history of civilisation actually runs from order to chaos and back again?

The Seed of Decay

@samsmith1971 in challenge write up has mention Greek etymology of word 'Entropy' so I though - it is actually perfect start.
From ancient history but also through myths, one can hypothesise that history is in a process of gradual and continuous degradation.

Greeks in their mythology divided history into five stages. It all began with a perfect - golden age. It was a period full of joy, fulfilment, prosperity, a long and healthy life, and perpetual celebration of beauty. Unfortunately, once the 'Pandora's box' was opened, everything began to gradually disintegrate. Each successive period in the history of mankind brought with it more and more worries and problems.

And then we have the Silver Age, the Brass Age, the Heroic Age and, at the very end, the Iron Age.

The Iron Age was synonymous with hardship, toil, sorrow, disease, a short life, struggle between generations and a lack of respect for truth and justice.

The Greeks believed that although the world was created by the deities and is perfect, it has within it a so-called grain of decay. And therefore, every action moves us away from the perfect state created by the gods.

So, where are we now?

Islands of Order and Seas of Chaos

In the book: Entropy: A New World View (mind you, it is old book, and some of authors views can be tad dated and can sound bit controversial and exaggerated), the authors try to disprove the symmetry thesis - 'if was better - then now must be worse', and then the cycle repeats itself.

Through many examples, the authors hypothesise that our current 'ordering' is actually the build-up of chaos. In short, the book argues that the modern industrial world is not a model of progress and order, but on the contrary, by creating so-called islands of order it leaves a sea of chaos all around, because we are governed by the law of entropy.

The authors give examples from almost all aspects of life, I will get you but a few.

Mechanised agriculture causes not only depletion and erosion of the soil, but deep soil contamination. In addition, the transport of food over great distances results in the need to add preservatives in ever-increasing doses. Thus, despite the abundance of food, its quality is so poor that we have to supplement our diet.

Energy produces what is known as net energy, the value of which is the difference between the useful energy produced for transmission to consumers and the energy consumed in the production of usable energy. And further, the value of net energy decreases with each new fuel used in the history of mankind. It tends to be more difficult to access and much more expensive to obtain and as well as to process. On top of that, there are the costs of transporting energy over long distances, all to ensure the continued operation of an economy that cannot afford downtime these days. So the value of energy is decreasing significantly.

Taking this a step further, we have industry. By producing certain goods from this energy, we are causing it to be lost at virtually every stage - from extracting the energy, then converting it into certain goods, then using it, then repairing it, and finally recycling the goods or even disposing of them at waste dumps. And, unfortunately, we already know very well today that landfilling and securing rubbish consumes further amounts of energy.

Even in a field such as education, we are expanding the seas of entropy. By forcing the memorisation of more and more information in very rigid and artificial forms of education, we are creating more and more information chaos. The media are adding to this. The effects can be seen in children - information overload, stress and psychosomatic illnesses are the everyday reality for many families.

Paradoxically, each generation performs worse and worse academically, having enormous problems with logical and associative thinking. Imaging to pick once identity and building a new character
in all this noise. What a nightmare.

Medicine is also a good example here: despite ever-increasing squandering budgets, it is failing to cope with illnesses. Spending on health care is increasing, treatment technologies are becoming more and more advanced, and diseases are not declining.

---

Old diseases have been joined by diseases of civilisation. Treatment of symptoms results in so-called chronic diseases. The number of iatrogenic diseases, (diseases caused by medical treatment itself), is increasing as well. I don't even want to get into the subject that we are an overmedicalized society and that medicines themselves have such a wide range of side-effects that many of us seriously consider our other options when reading the leaflets.

So were we are at?

Pressed up against the wall, I guess. Or news want us believe so. Apparently the human ego has swollen to such monstrous proportions that it will be difficult to get back on track.

But what do you think? Do you still see the ways out or perhaps we should let nature take over like in the song 'Ænema' by Tool

(…)
Some say the end is near
Some say we'll see Armageddon soon
I certainly hope we will
I sure could use a vacation from this
(...)
The only way to fix it is to flush it all away
(...)
Learn to swim, learn to swim

Are we on the verge of disaster or someone want us to believe so?

Maybe it is possible that the philosophy of the our new era can be smaller energy flows? Accepting that small is beautiful. That we need less centralisation. That the regions need more autonomy. Promotion of rural settlements. Living closer to nature. Healthy, home growing food. Renewable energy, but local ones.
Meditation, quieting the mind, conscious self-restraint.

Sounds like utopia, isn't it?

Have a lovely Tuesday dear Hivians!
Yours,
Strega Azure

Sources:

When enough is not enough
Should I keep studying
The laws of thermodynamics, Khan Academy
Tool, album Ænima, lyrics of song 'Ænema'
Book - Entropy: A New World View by Jeremy Rifkin, Ted Howard
Book 'Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life' by Jordan B. Peterson

Edit: I shot new pictures this morning with day light, and you can see a little bit more colour:)
Which one you prefer?

I used watercolour pencils and 200 mgm black paper.

Drawing & pictures are my authorship if not stated otherwise,
all rights reserved @strega.azure ©

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