“The Federation has taught you that conflict should not exist. But without struggle, you would not know who you truly are. Struggle made us strong.” – Star Trek Beyond
Some people think the Universe will last forever. Silly people. We’ll only have stars for the next 100,000,000,000,000 years or so.
The Universe is built on multiple simple principles that interact in ways that make Elvis™, PEZ®, and mayonnaise covered garden gnomes all possible. A light coating of mayo will do – we’re not crazy here at Stately Wilder Manor®. One of those simple principles is that as time passes, disorder in the Universe increases. This tendency towards disorder is called entropy, and it’s not just a good idea – it’s the law: the second law of thermodynamics. The nice thing about this law is you can’t break it, so there’s no need for Thermodynamics Police and Judge Judy can’t preside in Physics Court®.
A way to think about this inexorable drive toward disorder is to imagine that the Universe is a campfire – one that you can’t add wood to. At the beginning it’s a great blaze, because you were an idiot and used gasoline to start the fire and burned off your eyebrows. As the blaze burns, it consumes the wood. After a time there is nothing left but coals, which glow dimly for hours. The current most accepted theory (but not the only one) is that the Universe started with a sudden quantum instability, more commonly known as the Big Bang®.
In the beginning (see what I did there?) the Universe experienced the greatest amount of potential energy it will ever see. The Universe is that blazing gasoline-soaked campfire. Since that moment in time, the amount of energy available in the Universe decreases continually. Like a fire, it burns hot at the beginning. That’s where we are, it’s still hot out there. The embers will glow as the last available energy in the Universe is slowly turned into a starless thin vapor nearing absolute zero, much like Marvel® movies without Iron Man©.
Entropy – now maintenance free!
This tendency toward lower overall energy and thus overall lower order is called entropy.
It’s important to note that entropy always increases in a closed system – like when you store a decapitated human head in a Yeti® cooler – who hasn’t had that problem? The Earth, thankfully, isn’t a closed system. It has a wonderful thermonuclear reactor pumping energy down from millions of miles away, every day. To put it in perspective, the Earth only receives one billionth of the energy that the Sun puts out daily, like you only received one billionth of your mother’s love, since the rest of it was reserved for chardonnay and “Daytime Daddy.”
Why isn’t the Earth a closed system?
The Sun allows us to have surplus energy, and thus order on Earth. With the exception of nuclear reactors, all energy on Earth is solar. Wind is caused by differential heating of the atmosphere. Rain is caused by solar evaporation of water. Even oil is millions of years of trapped sunlight, helpfully stored by God in gas stations. Nuclear fuel used in our current reactors (and the core of the Earth) was forged in the heart of a star. Not Nicholas Cage®. Maybe Johnny Depp™.
This energy is responsible for other things, too. Salt deposits. Sand dunes. And life.
So disorder is increasing across the Universe every day. And not only in the galaxy, but in your house. In your carpet. In your body. In that Yeti© cooler.
But we know these things for certain. Without energy:
- Your house will someday be a wreck.
- Your carpet should have been replaced Reagan left office. Brown shag is . . . 1980.
- Your body will die.
Until you die, you have to have standards. You have to hold the line.
You have to fight for the glorious tomorrow over the whispering of losing your will and relaxing today.
Life is hard. Life is a struggle. If you are lucky, you can struggle for mighty things, good things, virtuous things. Hopefully with a healthy body and maybe a hardwood floor.
But I’ll let you in on a little secret:
We all lose in the end. Entropy will win. Entropy always wins.
The struggle is the goal.
Regardless of where you are, this is your golden age, your moment – it’s the only one you have. When you were six you knew this. What you read, what you watched – what was thrilling, who were your heroes? People who went to work at a bank? No.
In ancient Sparta, apparently they did Cross-Fit® but didn’t talk about it. They were advanced!
Your heroes were people who struggled, who fought. Winning was preferable, but the struggle was enough. A defiant loss like the Spartans at Thermopylae or the Texans at the Alamo is, perhaps, an even stronger example of virtue.
There are plenty of things in life that are worth fighting for, worth struggling for. What are you going to do with your life?
Grandpa McWilder didn’t wear a kilt. He was an overalls kinda guy.
You have two choices.
You can waste your life. Or you can struggle. Do you have the discipline to embrace the struggle?
All the cool kids are doing it.
At least struggle with a rifle cartridge if you’re gonna fight aliens.
“With the exception of nuclear reactors, all energy on Earth is solar.”
Point of order: nuclear reactions are composed of atoms and molecules, which came from the material produce by the Big Bang.
As did everything.
“We are all made of stars.” – Carl Sagan
Thus, strictly speaking, all energy everywhere is solar, and always has been, since the first ginormous wad blew apart at Time Zero.
This physics stuff is tricky like that.
Uranium, indeed all elements heavier than lithium, are the byproducts of stellar novae. We are not just star stuff, we are dead, exploded star stuff.
Yup. Which may explain why I can’t find luggage after I fly.
Welllllllll . . . . the radioactive stuff was forged in the furnace of a dead star – so it’s solar, just not the Sun. If we could ever figure out fusion as an energy source (which I doubt we will), it will be partially solar – the isotopes we’d need, say, helium 3, would have been made by the Sun, too.
So, yes, it’s all solar.
But if all men are brothers, I wouldn’t let one marry my sister.
Entropy is best understood not as chaos, but as averageness. Like a democrat run public school, everything runs towards low energy averageness. Grey ennui forever.
Heh heh heh.