One idea of human purpose, and the purpose of life more generally: reducing entropy

[Ben Sibelman]

Here's a quote from page 168 of Seeing Nature by Paul Krafel, one of the most important works that drive the philosophy of my tiny new religion, SolSeed.

"The Second Law [of Thermodynamics] does to my life path what a steepening slope does to my walking. The Second Law heightens my awareness of the possible consequences that reside in every thought, word, and action. When I toss off a put-down of someone, I notice their spirit retract and notice how many minutes of extra effort it takes to restore the relationship to the level before the put-down. Put-downs feel like slips downslope; I try to step more gracefully. Though it is easy to set rocks tumbling down, it's also possible to dance lightly upward.

"Each day is filled with a million moves upon the slopes of the Second Law. Any move upon these slopes can remind me of the upward and downward directions. This sense of direction is important. Without a sense of direction, for example, the power of a bomb appears greater than the power of a grass blade. But with a sense of direction, I see that the power of a grass blade is greater in the same way that the number 'one' is greater than the number 'negative one million.'

"As I try to align more of my actions to the upward direction, my actions become less random. My life accumulates shape and power.... The Second Law, once a burdensome source of despair, has unexpectedly become an ally of disciplined hope."

What do people think? Is this ethical framework a good source of purpose?

[Emerson]

Ben,
I would like a little clearer picture of how you see the 2nd Law affecting the direction of life or affecting the direction
we might choose to take in life.

I have usually viewed life as having to overcome the 2nd Law’s drive towards lowering entropy in order to“accomplish” new feats, like expanding ports or building high buildings. Does your view suggest we try to be more in line with lowering entropy (like lowering social tensions, for example).

Be prepared and be energy aware,
- Emerson

[vandermude]

I'm sorry. I should probably not say anything.

But I have been obsessing about this view of entropy vis-a-vis purpose and ethics since I read it.

Background: I majored in physics. Statistical thermodynamics was far and away my favourite physics class. I loved it. I ended up going into computers, especially Artificial Intelligence, Especially Computational Learning Theory.
A couple of years ago, I had a paper published on the relationship between Aristotelian Metaphysics and Quantum Mechanics. It was the first part of a longer paper "Hylomorphic Functions" that I summarized in a Medium Essay:
https://medium.com/science-and-philosop ... e249aac558
Here is the full paper:
https://researchers.one/articles/18.11.00009
The reason I bring this up is that I discuss entropy in this paper on pages 83-84,87 and as an experimental test of my theory on page 102.

So I know something about entropy. I can relate entropy to physics, metaphysics and the concept of information.

But I just don't get it.

How does the concept of entropy relate to human purpose and human ethics?

I just can't make it work for me.

Can you explain more? Why does it speak to you? Is it a metaphor? Is it a metric or a way of knowing? What?

Why does it move you? What speaks to you?

Tony Van der Mude

[MarkI]

Tony, I took Ben's post to mean being mindful to metaphorically make more music and less noise.

[vandermude]

Tony, I took Ben's post to mean being mindful to metaphorically make more music and less noise.

Thank you, Mark. Your responses are always music to my ears (or should I say, eyes).

I shall take it as metaphor. The equations weren't working out anyway.

Tony