Negentropy
Noun (uncountable)
• The entropy that a living thing exports to keep its own entropy low.
What the hell?
Has it always been this way—where looking up a word leaves you more disoriented than enlightened? I thought I had a grip on entropy. Then I look up negentropy and find this strange declaration: A living thing exports entropy to keep its own entropy low. Wait… what?
The Thermodynamic Tangle
Let’s step back. The first law of thermodynamics: Everything is moving from order to disorder, eventually. The second law: Some isolated systems, briefly, move from disorder to order. Solar systems form. Crystals assemble. Dead food becomes complex, ordered life. (Hello, digestion.)mThat’s negentropy, I guess. The temporary local reversal of decay. But we don’t speak of it much. Frankly, I’d never looked the word up until now. And I’m surprised at the phrasing: I export entropy to keep my entropy low.
The Sentient Top
So if a spinning top becomes sentient,mits first priority is… staying upright? It senses disorder approaching and thinks: “Let’s give this disorder to someone else so I can keep spinning!” Apparently.mThat gives a whole new meaning to interpersonal communication. Maybe we’re all just flinging entropy at each other to stay ordered ourselves.mBut Where Does It Go?mI want to understand this “exporting” idea. Does it mean actually removing entropy from myself and placing it somewhere else?mOr is it more like information—shared but not lost?mThe definition only works if entropy leaves me. Lowering mine by raising someone else’s. Is that how it works? Examples?
If I have disordered thoughts and take time to organize them— am I exporting entropy? Or just re-arranging it internally?mAnd if I’m exporting—where does it go? When I sneeze, I’m definitely reducing the viral load in my body. Solid example of exporting. Does more sneezing mean faster healing? ( Maybe not the metaphor I want to follow too far.) But it highlights the problem: I’m still having a hard time with this exporting concept.
Final Pondering
Is all life just a delicate balance of internal order maintained by shedding disorder into the world? Is conversation just a subtle redistribution of chaos? Negentropy sounded like a simple reversal. But instead, it might be the most polite form of existential dumping.
Still pondering.
