Why are so many non-scientists fascinated by the concepts of entropy, even though they don't understand it?
There is a lot of gobbledegook that sounds religious, like acceptance, serenity, perfect balance of mind and spirit.
OK. I have egg on my face. I read Why are so many scientists fascinated by the concepts of entropy, even though they don't understand it? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Lots of people are non-scientists - they're regular lay-people. What you are referring to is often called woo-ism. Woo-ists are attracted to scientific concepts of many flavours, and try to add legitimancy to their woo by metaphorizing from them. It's not limited to entropy; there is woo associated with a wide array of scientific phenom, including quantum superposition, relativity and evolution.
I can see why entropy appeals to laypeople. The statistical tendency of the universe towards equalling out its heat distribution is something that has been said to be the arrowhead on the direction of time (though I'm not sure I quite buy that). The irreversibility of most processes, due to entropy increase, makes entropy feel as it is has something to do with an overall idea of something gradually running down, like a clock spring. It is quite a deep concept. And then of course you get misuses of it by various groups, as Dave says. People probably like it because they don't understand it and it thus has an air of mystery. Whereas the job of science of course is to remove mystery from nature, as far as possible.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
The (mis)understanding of entropy falls into line nicely with (some) Christians' concept of Original Sin and The Fall. The world is falling apart because of us. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth but we (apparently) created entropy.
Really? I guess to me, woo is woo. There is a large overlap between alternative medicine and New Age mumbo jumbo such as The Secret and Law of Attraction. My wife is getting intrigued by a writer who uses physics buzzwords in his Wellness soapboxing. Rocky road ahead for us. But I concede your point.
Yes it's interesting how human perception of the direction of order with time has altered. The Greeks had this idea of a downward spiral from a golden age down through silver and bronze and thus to a - for them, present day - iron age. After the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, the "Whig view of history" took the opposite view, whereby history was a continuous process of "progress" i.e. of improvement. Entropy has more of the ancient Greek idea of decline about it. But of course one has to distinguish between human affairs and nature. Nature running down is not incompatible with progress in human affairs.
Yes! I think you hit it on the head. I've seen them go ape over quantum anything, but especially entanglement. Just a couple of hours ago, I read something incomprehensible about evolution having an opposite process called involution, that we atheists deny blindly, because it originates in God. Huh? But these events are on such vastly different scales that they can't possibly interact. I don't suppose most people, especially the spiritual romantics, like to admit how very infinitesimally significant we are in the history of the universe.
