Happy Earth Day! There are two concepts that every person should understand to be a better Earthling: entropy and self-organization. It seems like a paradox, but systems on Earth are simultaneously breaking down into disorder and arranging themselves into complex superorganisms. Everything on Earth (well, really in the whole universe) is subject to the second law of thermodynamics, which means it all dies and decays. But with access to steady flows of energy, organisms, ecosystems, and human societies can hold back the death and decay for a spell. After dropping the kids off at the pool, Asher, Rob, and Jason cover the interplay of entropy and self-organization and contemplate how to manage the inevitability of entropy with elegance (beyond morphing into a lizard person).
Originally recorded on 4/8/25.
Warning: This podcast occasionally uses spicy language.
Sources/Links/Notes:
- Geoffrey West, Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies, Penguin Books, 2018.
- Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, Scribner, 2024.
- William Rees, “End game: the economy as eco-catastrophe and what needs to change,” Real-World Economics Review, 2019.
- The laws of thermodynamics, as explained by the website “Physics for Idiots"
- "Telegraph Road" - song by Dire Straits
- David Owen, "Green Manhattan," The New Yorker, October 10, 2004.
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