[ExI] Extropy opposite of entropy?

[John Clark]

On Sun, Jul 24, 2016  Giovanni Santostasi <gsantostasi at gmail.com> wrote:

​> ​
> Locally life is a battle against entropy.
>

Entropy isn't always the enemy. Maximum information
​
, or at least maximum
​information that intelligence finds ​
interesting
​,​
 seem to be about
​
midway between maximum and minimum
​
entropy. Put some cream in a glass coffee cup and then very carefully put
some coffee on top of it. For a short time the 2 fluids will remain
segregated and the
​
entropy will be low and the information needed to describe it would be low
too, but then tendrils of cream will start to move into the coffee and all
sorts of spirals and other complex
​and pretty ​
patterns will form, the entropy is higher now and the information needed to
describe it is higher
​ too​
, but after that the fluid in the cup will reach a dull uniform color that
is darker than coffee but lighter than cream, the entropy has reached a
maximum but it would take less
​interesting ​
information to describe it.

Another example is smoke from a cigarette in a room with no air currents,
it starts out as a simple smooth laminar flow but then turbulence kicks in
and very complex patterns form, and after that it diffuses into uniform
featureless
​and very dull ​
fog.

​I like the fact that entropy increases, if we ever get to the point where
that doesn't happen anymore that would mean the universe has reached heat
death. ​


​ John K Clark​
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