entropy: pro and con

• PRO: Towels are self-drying.
• CON: Dust accumulates on surfaces regardless of the moral culpability of the surface’s owner. This is typically the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the phrase “cosmic injustice”.
• PRO: The tendency of energy to seek less-ordered states allows physical work to exist in the universe, which can can be harnessed by order-increasing processes, including those that form the basis of life.
• CON: Videogame controller cords frequently become tangled.
• PRO/CON: Bags of candy (e.g. Skittles) are self-mixing. However, this is somewhat offset by the resulting necessity of M&M sorting, which significantly drives up the per-unit cost of rock & roll.
• PRO: Ice makes drinks colder.
• CON: The inevitable heat death of the universe. This sounds like it will be a drag.

VERDICT: Mixed. Entropy allows life to exist, but also means that life will consist largely of tidying up. It’s unclear whether this is a net positive or negative.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 15th, 2007 at 10:43 am and is filed under science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.