Editorial - Entropy

Hello Dear Reader, and welcome to Issue 8 of Consilience.

This issue showcases work exploring the theme of entropy. Defined at its simplest as the measure of order in a system, entropy can be quantified in terms of the energy required to prevent that order from slipping into chaos and is applied across a wide range of disciplines, from physics and chemistry to business and programming.

Theoretical entropic models rely on closed systems and extrapolation of idealised data. Modern computational technology can convert these concepts into practical applications on a scale previously inconceivable. Negating external variables and utilising, for example, hyper focused lasers and nano-engineered crystalline structures in sealed vacuums, humans can take these experiments into the relative vacuum of space, even to other planets. We apply these principles to medicine, agriculture, electronics, until they become so commonplace they are taken for granted. 

Chaos and order are inherently human: we adore quantifiable, definable systems. We teach entropy in schools – thermodynamic calculations, a sandcastle disintegrating with a breath of wind and mono-directional time. Yet a baby can understand the principles of relative systemic entropy: towering and toppling blocks, the smoosh of a moulded jelly between fingers. We know long before we can articulate it that greater energetic input is needed to arrange peas neatly on a plate than it takes to dash them all over the floor. 

Classroom definitions dissipate over time unless we reorder our learning through repeated bursts of focus: review, revision, reapplication. These principles repeat themselves, as seen in our rapidly changing environment. We observe these patterns too in the continuity of historical movements, where rhetoric and action over hundreds of years still shapes our modern social and political landscapes. 

In art and language, feedback loops of perspective build, discover and rediscover, questioning or reinforcing patterns of status quo. Each piece of work we produce is a unit of input to humanity’s cognitive landscape, with potential to shift the equilibrium of human consciousness towards an output that shapes our reactions and their consequential pressures and impacts – for better and for worse.

We can focus on the minutiae of complex calculations, but in systems that favour order over chaos it is vital we question the boundaries put in place – and whose definitions of ‘order’ we are conforming to. In a world of inequality, it is as important as ever to consider the structures and systems humanity has set up for itself. There is power in words to deconstruct and rebuild systems of oppression. 

We hope that you enjoy this issue’s art, poetry and science, and the diversity of ideas we explore, from the transience of natural cycles and the importance of decay as a facet of life in Katie Aird’s stunning cover art and Amy Boyd’s ‘Altered Axis’, to the degradation of cognitive order and the significant personal impact of dementia, in ‘String of Pearls (Dementropy)’ by Eric Arnold. Alicia Sometimes and Claudia Coutu Radmore similarly make elegant use of the page to illustrate their reflections on thermodynamic equilibrium as a route to ultimate destruction and the fairy-tale microstructures of clouds in ‘Heat Death of the Universe’ and ‘when the sky is falling’, respectively. Perhaps, Dear Reader, in absorbing the ordered reflections of these exciting contributions you may even be inspired to create order through your own creative output - be it in science, art, or the world of possibility in between.

The Consilience Team