As a word nerd, I love a beautiful arrangement of words, especially when they are as beautiful as they are meaningful or disturbing (or both). And today's post was inspired by a phrase I heard during my writing research. As I said in my post about Immortality I find immortality an interesting trope to play around with in fiction, and for a story about an immortal villain trapped in a coffin, I was wondering about what would or wouldn't survive over a long time. In my research, I discovered an article all about a project for a building a long-term project the Clock of the Long Now, all about building something to last 10,000 years.
The Long Now Foundation was trying to find the best materials to last such a long time, and when talking to materials scientists, an anonymous scientist was quoted as saying:
Everything is burning, just at different rates.
It appears that they were referring to the fact that "aging" of materials is related to oxidization. This scientist was being referred to second-hand, so I can't know exactly what they meant or how much they may disagree with my interpretation. But, I think I perceived something deeper from those words...
Because burning is, ultimately, a chemical reaction. And whilst I don't know that much about oxygenation, I do know about entropy.
Part of the reason I think I'm interpreting them wrong is because burning is about heat, and entropy is about dispersal of heat (i.e. cooling, kind of the opposite) but still, when I heard that it made me think about the fact that everything is slowly, but surely, decaying, some faster than others... the word of the day is: 'ENTROPY'
Entropy /entrəpi/n. 1. Thermodynamics. a) (on a macroscopic scale) A function of thermodynamic variables, as temperature, pressure, or composition, and differing from energy in that energy is the ability to do work and entropy is a measure of how much energy is not available. The less work that is produced, the greater the entropy, so when a closed system is void of energy, the result is maximum entropy. b) (in statistical mechanics) A measure of the randomness of the microscopic constituents of a thermodynamic system. 2. (in data transmission and information theory) A measure of the loss of information in a transmitted signal or message. 3. (in cosmology) A hypothetical tendency for the universe to attain a state of maximum homogeneity in which all matter is at a uniform temperature heat death. 4. A state of disorder, or a tendency toward such a state; chaos. 5. A doctrine of inevitable social decline and degeneration.
When I was a kid, I experienced a moment that I feel like a lot of kids go through at some point. I was talking about the future with my father, and he mentioned that, at some point, the sun is going to explode.
I think he mentioned it as an example of intellectual curiosity, but as a child this was existentially horrifying. The very thing that we rely on for life, sitting innocently above us during each day, is going to kill us all. As a kid I came to the only conclusion that made any sense to me: Our goal, as humans, is to escape this calamity. I didn't fully understand the timescale, and when I finally did I felt slightly less horrified, but I still maintained my conclusion that at some point we need to get the fuck off this rock.
[Author's Note: I was a child at the time, and thus too naive to have the coarse language necessary to express the idea that accurately/succinctly].For years, I lived with this ideal. At some point, we must escape the Earth, then we can create the inevitable Star Trek utopia and start fucking space babes.
[Author's Note: Again, as I was a child at the time, and thus too naive to recognize the necessary benefits of xenosexual intercourse].
However, this attitude shifted when I was a growing preteen and learned about entropy. For those of you who still haven't learnt this lesson, or don't fully recognize the reality of the situation, Entropy is a measure of chaos (or homogeneity) in a closed system.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that, over time, entropy must increase.
This is simply because matter and energy can neither be created or destroyed and it takes work to achieve order, including the "containment of energy" and thus energy, matter, and everything naturally starts to settle out and disperse.
Order is inherently unstable, everything naturally breaks down, slows, and cools as a result of matter and energy decaying, leading to inevitable heat death. And this principle is applicable on both the micro- and macroscopic scale. So, for the same reason that your hot cup of coffee eventually cools, the universe will also eventually cool. And since life relies on complex biochemistry and ordered organic matter, this also necessitates that all life must end.
As a preteen (and moody teenager), I decided "well, there's no fucking point then, is there? It's all going to end anyway."
Fuck me, I'm glad this is a Halloween blog post, because that's not exactly an uplifting conversation starter, is it?
It always bothers me when someone says "I don't like small talk", because I'm usually using it to ingratiate myself to them in a way that's socially acceptable, so I don't want to broach difficult topics unless I know them to be mentally prepared for them. That's why 'small talk' exists in the first place, but fuck it—next time someone says to you "I don't like small talk", say to them "okay then, so how do you feel knowing that the heat death of the universe will render all human achievement ultimately pointless?"
That's some big, fucking talk for you, you self-important goose.
I think one of the reasons why I like to use that phrase "everything is burning" to think about this concept is because, whilst mildly unsettling, at least it is a poetic way of seeing it and it makes it slightly more aesthetic.
But, it is still a bitter pill, isn't it? I've said my piece about personal death, I don't want to die myself, so expanding that to a cosmic scale isn't really something I'm keen on. But I want to talk about it.
Why? Well, because I have actually changed my mind back to my childhood position. I think that, in the next four billion years, we need to find a way to expand beyond this rock. Why? Well, because it would be FUCKING COOL.
I know that doesn't sound like the most sensible argument, but trust me it is. When the universe is over, nobody will be around to deal with it. But, if we can avoid the conflagration of our sun exploding, that gives us much more opportunity to do cool shit, experience life for just that bit longer. It is literally my same position on death, in general - life is better than death, so we shouldn't let the inevitability of death spoil the meaning in your life.
I do still believe that the heat death of the universe will render all life pointless, but I believe that such pointlessness will be post-mortem, it needn't bleed through into the moments preceding it. We should keep it in mind, to keep humanity in perspective. I think it serves as a cosmic slap in the face to the human ego to remind us that we are fragile, fallible and flammable.
I'm the Absurd Word Nerd, and remember that Everything is Burning, you and I included. That doesn't mean you stop, it means that you are guaranteed to go out in a blaze of glory. So, enjoy it while you can.
