Photo by Cody McCullough
Change is inevitable, but is chaos? According to entropy, everything gradually declines into disorder, or chaos; ergo chaos is inevitable. That should make the villains of the world happy. Just like a sappy comic book, though, I believe the villains will inevitably be disappointed in the end. That is because I believe in the idea of reversing entropy.
So, just how do you reverse entropy? My answer: the same way that you write, grow a business, raise a family, or do just about anything meaningful in the world. Put simply: embrace change. Change is inevitable, there is no getting around that. That’s why you can never rest on your laurels. If you want to be successful at anything, you have to grow and evolve over time.
What does that have to do with entropy? My answer: everything. It’s not nature that leads to disorder, it’s what goes against nature that falls apart in the end. From what I can see, nature is actually quite ordered. From the stars and the Universe above, all the way down to our cells and atoms, order is everywhere. It’s the human world where disorder is rampat. Why? Mostly, I think, it is because we like to create things. Every creation, though, ultimately has its end. Even the pyramids of Giza will not last forever. All human creations, eventually lose their battle with time; ergo nature wins in the end. Which in my mind, is actually order winning.
No need to worry, though, as humans derive from nature meaning we are not disorder incarnate. It’s only our creations that represent disorder. Thanks to the process of evolution we will be fine, our children will be fine, and their children will be fine. The deck I plan to build onto my house next summer, however, probably won’t survive three more generations (especially if the Oregon rain has anything to say about it). Decks just aren’t natural in the wild….
So, what’s the point? Simply put: embrace change and subsequently increase your cerebral capacity instead of slowly letting it slip away. When it comes to writing, and just about everything else, we need to evolve along with nature and the world around us. If we don’t, nature will pass us by just like my future deck. Be a lifelong learner, be inquisitive, ask questions, seek the truth, and above all, never think that you know everything. You don’t. It’s impossible. If you spend some time at the library, either virtually or physically, you may just find that you know more today than you did yesterday. If that is the case, then you’re probably ready to write, and ready to join me in the battle to reverse entropy.
Photo by Elizabeth McCullough
Cody McCullough Writes: 
There is always something new to learn, or new discoveries in the fields that one is familiar in. With the wealth of things to find out, it would be mad to not try and learn and keep discovering. Everything is fascinating when put across in an interesting way and it would be rude not to oblige these people.
Much agreed. Speaking of putting information across in an interesting way, I believe I need to check in on one of my favorite blogs.
Tan simple como eso, hay que seguirle el ritmo a la naturaleza,
que siempre se adapta al cambio. C
Un abrazo.
Gracias por el abrazo virtual. Lo necesitaba. Ha sido un largo día …
entropy – I have thought long on this and have concluded I can’t possibly tell if humans are too limited to see the ultimate result of our acts, and if we could would then make sense of all, or if chaos is elemental. I suspect, as you do, nature is not chaotic.
It sounds like we think alike. It’s good to know that there are others who think as I do. Thank you for taking the time to comment.
For an adventurous person, I always get depressed about change. Not about the chance to try new things, to discover all the potentials life holds but in leaving a good phase behind. But I’ve never regretted change. This is an amazing post. Made me think!
I’m glad to hear that this post made you think. That is a great compliment. As always, I appreciate your feedback.
Such a coincidence! I watched a documentary about Buzludzha in Bulgaria and then read your post here!
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” So it is that all things come to an end. Even mighty ideas falter in the end…. Still, though, it makes you wonder what will be next?
I do have one question about this though:
“Thanks to the process of evolution we will be fine”
I guess that depends on how “we” is defined. Because things could change such that humans can no longer survive on this planet, But life would probably go on and evolve in some form. I was watching Cosmos and there’s some sort of creature that seems to be able to survive both excessively low and high temperatures. That thing will probably survive, and perhaps evolve into some form of higher life. But not necessarily something that approaches human life.
How do you see the situation?
I was definitely thinking of “we” in the broadest terms possible. When you look back at the history of life on Earth, it’s hard to miss all of the extinction events. Of all of the species that have existed on Earth, more than 98% are now extinct. Couple that with the fact that current species are going extinct at increasingly high rates, and you have a recipe for disaster. If “we” want to survive, we’ll most likely need to embrace views and ideas that are different than the ones that got us here. I’m not sure if we are ready yet. At the same time, I remain optimistic that it is possible. I suppose only time will tell…. In the meantime, I imagine the creature you mentioned won’t be worrying too much about the future.