This conversation with TBocce got me thinking for weeks about entropy ... [06:36] TBocce Player (tbocce): Rome wasn't built in a day I suppose... [06:37] CF: no but it can be destroyed in a day -- [06:38] TBocce Player (tbocce): yes...Man had developed weapons of mass destruction, and if you agree with GBS that is what Man does [06:39] CF: creativity is swimming up the strong current of entropy [06:39] CF: 10's of millions of years to figure out a spear tip ... [06:40] TBocce Player (tbocce): apparently we offer more incentives  to make war than we do to keep peace [06:43] CF: no i think destruction is just inherently easier [06:44] TBocce Player (tbocce): because of the resources spent on finding the technology to do it quicker and more effectively are greater [06:49] CF: i think u would rather discuss politics than physics [06:50] TBocce Player (tbocce): I try to talk about what I know; and I know  little about science. I am open to learning [06:51] CF: ok [06:51] CF: "e

This is a huge subject and I have a lot to say about it. For the moment, I’d like to give you a thumbnail sketch of an idea that seems to have “legs”. “Entropy” is one of the deepest and most powerful ideas in Science. Unfortunately, along with Quantum Mechanics, it is a total mystery to most educated laymen. At the risk of insulting your intelligence, I will give you a quick introduction to the idea, with the promise that I will connect it to something very relevant and practical by the end of the essay. For those new to the subject, there are many exhaustive treatments on-line, such as: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy_(information_theory) Unfortunately, if you don’t already “get” the idea of entropy, such essays will only deepen the mystery. For the moment, lets just say that entropy is a measure of randomness.It’s easier to understand the opposite of entropy, which you might think of as “information”. There is another, closely connected idea of entropy that comes from thermodyn