Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Entropy

     Driving through the mountains of Tennessee is just a fantastic site. While the mountains are not the rugged rock type of mountains they are still very tall extending just below the tree line of the earth. The views from the highway are spectacular, the drive through the back roads very peaceful. A few weeks back while rounding the top of a back road on a very tall mountain the view extended to what seemed forever. It was absolutely beautiful. It was at this moment I truly realized that Earth is just another planet swinging silently in space. Yes, I knew that already and so do most people, it is just that the true reality hit. The planet is very insignificant in the face of the universe, although this is the only place that we are aware of sentient life. Our solar system is nothing in the vastness that our best technology is capable of viewing. Earth is just a planet and I now see it as just a planet.


     Life seems more fragile than before. Most life can only live within a couple miles of the sea level height, the air gets too thin and the temperatures too cold. We are stuck here with no where to go. Our lives are short, the world for us is a quick stage and then the show is over. All life is programmed to reproduce in some way to ensure the success of the species living on. Earth is all we have right now and without worry life continues to reproduce accordingly and with Tao.

     The second realization is that if the laws of thermal dynamics are correct, energy changes form and entropy continuously increases. The universe is expanding, the outer portion faster than the inner. Matter is getting further and further apart and energy constantly changing form over a larger and larger area. The human race with all of its intellect will never endure; we will still succumb to nature and any life that traverses the universe will be eradicated long before everything reaches absolute zero.

1 comment:

Rizal Affif said...

Yes, will never endure.

It's funny how some people "damage" nature but the fact is, nature is just as is; they only hurt themselves in the end.

But maybe, when universe reaches absolute zero, we already become the zero state itself :D