Thanks to Thomas Pynchon, I became aware of the
definition of Entropy while reading,
“The Crying of Lot 49”. While watching the roll-out of Obamacare, entropy immediately came to mind. A
definition of the term is clearly needed here. I wish I could provide it, but the science is
far too complex for my tiny mind. The best description I can bring forth is
that entropy defines the energy within any given system.
We know from the law of thermodynamics that over time, in any
given system, the energy will decrease. Eventually, this will lead to the death
of the system, but to quote from the scientific analysis of thermodynamics,
“interesting things continue to happen at increasingly low levels of
energy.” That sounds like a deliberately
provocative statement. Of course interesting things may happen…but the fact
that they may happen at increasingly low levels of energy makes me think of
dying. There is something about the
waning energy in any given system that immediately calls to mind the aging
process. The fact is, no matter what you
do to prevent the loss of energy, most systems will eventually lose steam and
die. That applies to man but not always to machines. What about information?
Actually, when talking about the energy of a
system- any gain in entropy always means loss
of information and nothing more. This they figured out in 1930. They
applied the theory to data at that point, and concluded that the higher the
energy in a system, the more frequent are the signaling errors. The lack of
order or predictability in a system leads to a gradual decline and disorder.
Why does this matter? Because it applies to data,
it would stand to reason that it applied to the health care rollout. Was it not
inevitable that the system created to distribute a new healthcare program would
be designed to fail? According to this model, it was not intended to do
anything but fail! On a massive scale, the healthcare system crashed. The
notion that one man or one party should be called upon to fix a broken system
is absurd. The Health care system in the United States has been broken for a
while. It’s in everyone’s interest to see it fixed. It’s government by the
people, of the people and for the people. The two-party system is the next one
that comes to mind regarding the definition of Entropy. That, too is in a state
of gradual decline and disorder. Whether or not it’s within anyone’s power to
fix it is another story.
Comments
Post a Comment