Why do you always have to make everything so complicated?

[muckefuck]

What is the opposite of entropy?

If we consider entropy to be the process by which everything tends toward a uniform unordered state (not a strict scientific definition, I know, but close to the popular one), what name to give to the countervailing tendency of matter to differentiate and complexify? "Order" is too static a term for my purposes, since it seems to name the end result more than the means by which it's achieved.

Any nominations?

Comments

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

While probably not an ideal choice, "construction" comes to mind. It's a somewhat dynamic word or process and the action does counter entropy. It also suggests that effort, intervention, is required to accomplish this countering. Hrm, maybe it's a pretty good choice at that. At least it's a start.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Well, hello! Where did you come from?

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

A friend's friend's list is how I wandered by.

[numignost.livejournal.com]

"Emergence" was in vogue for a while.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

It's got the best ring of the nominees so far.

[schlafmanko.livejournal.com]

I've also heard the tendency to complexify called "negentropy." A quick google makes it look like sciency types use that term, which explains its lack of elegance.

How about

[spookyfruit.livejournal.com]

coherence

-sf-

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I think it already has too many specialised meanings in physics to work well as a general term. Are in-phase wavelengths really less entropic than out-of-phase ones?

BTW, how was the flight?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Co-worker's suggestion: "extropy". Sounds like a great name for something!

[pleinweb.livejournal.com]

Is entropy the process? I thought entropy was also the end state, as in something moving "toward order" or "toward entropy," it just happens to be an end state that tends to not, by definition, be static, where order can be (though it doesn't necessarily have to be, either).

But for the sake of actually answering your question, how about concordance, parity, or similitude?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

In technical speech, I'm not sure that it's a state as much as a quality, since I recall formulations like "a state of maximum entropy". You're right, though, that the notion of entropy as an active process is a somewhat unorthodox one, but I do hear people use it this way.

[pleinweb.livejournal.com]

Looking up entropy I see it as a noun. Can nouns be qualities? I thought that was the domain of adjectives. Please, forgive my broken language skills, comprehension of language use never correlated with knowledge of its particles to me. I was much better at math and science.

Hmmm... maximum entropy? That's kind of an oxymoron if you think about it. I can see "maximum expected entropy" or "maximum measured entropy" but can there truthfully be a point, given the number of particles in the universe, of maximum chaos? Especially as far as our capacity to comprehend is concerned.

[mikiedoggie.livejournal.com]

Collusion?

[nibadi.livejournal.com]

Ich bin immer davon ausgegangen, dass Entropie der Gegenpol von Chaos sei, insofern ein Höchstmass an Ordnung oder des Ordnungsprinzips bedeutet. Wenn ich mich recht erinnere (lang ist es her, habe mich mal kurz am Rande des Studium damit befasst) gehen Chaosforscher davon aus, dass die Vollendung der Entropie (was immer das am Ende sein mag) zwangsläufig das Ende des Lebendigen bedeutet.

[trom.livejournal.com]

Complexity?

[nibadi.livejournal.com]

Chaos!

[foodpoisoningsf.livejournal.com]

I just think of entropy as another word for passive aggression.

[princeofcairo.livejournal.com]

I would probably nominate "complexity," especially since the clearest anti-entropics I recall offhand are the rules to Squad Leader.

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

Coalescence?

[his-regard.livejournal.com]

Optimism.

[fengshui.livejournal.com]

It's negentropy:
http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/00322571?single=1&query_type=word&queryword=negentropy&first=1&max_to_show=10
or, as an adjective, negentropic:
http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/00322570?single=1&query_type=word&queryword=negentropic&first=1&max_to_show=10