Literary notes about entropy (AI summary)
The term “entropy” in literature takes on a dual life: on one hand, it is invoked as a precise, scientific measure of energy dispersal and system evolution—as seen in discussions defining its numerical character and role in thermodynamic processes ([1],[2],[3])—while on the other hand, it serves as a powerful metaphor for decay, chaos, and the inevitable deterioration of order in history or existence ([4],[5],[6]). This duality is further enriched by narratives that contrast entropy with its conceptual opposite, anti-entropy, using the notion to suggest resistance against change or even as a marker of ultimate cessation ([7],[8],[9]).
- = , where φ stands for the entropy, Q for the heat received by the body, and T for the absolute temperature at which the heat is received.
— from The New Gresham Encyclopedia. Ebert to Estremadura Volume 4, Part 2 by Various - In mathematical language the increase in entropy between state A and state B is given by ( φ B - φ A )
— from The New Gresham Encyclopedia. Ebert to Estremadura Volume 4, Part 2 by Various - The change of entropy is, properly speaking, the most characteristic fact of a thermal change.
— from The New Physics and Its Evolution by Lucien Poincaré - It is an entropy of history itself, slowly decaying into chaotic repetition.
— from After the Rain : how the West lost the East by Samuel Vaknin - The reader is therefore warned that the proper way to say it is, "the entropy of the universe tends to a maximum."
— from Major Prophets of To-Day by Edwin E. (Edwin Emery) Slosson - That the entropy of the world tends toward a maximum.
— from Popular scientific lectures by Ernst Mach - Entropy - an even distribution of energy - equals death and stasis.
— from Financial Crime and Corruption by Samuel Vaknin - Eating their way into the anti-entropy ... into a state of matter which Russ and Greg had thought would resist all change !
— from Empire by Clifford D. Simak - Therefore it wishes to reach entropy and cease—a mechanical death wish."
— from Death Wish by Robert Sheckley
