The Entropy Engine (1 of 3)

The Entropy Engine

A three chapter meditation in fiction about thermodynamics, and LDS theology in the tradition of Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstaedter.

Chapter 1

I.

Philosopher-King Finulaus had a problem. He knew everything. This was not an idle boast.

Brain-downloads and mind-links made it easier, Extended lifespan far greater than Methuselah’s, gave him longer to learn. Still, there was much to learn, comprehend and practice. And he had done it. All.

He knew everything, and he knew there was no solution to his problem.

The universe was old. His kingdom’s own star was now a dim red dwarf, if it could still be called that. It was mostly iron, the remainder being similar metals. They had extended its lifespan as much as possible, and the truth was, it was almost dead. There just wasn’t any more nuclear fuel. He and his kingdom depended on it.

And so, he decided to make a deal. How? That truly does not matter. In every age and race, there are ways to appeal to that Fallen Angel, the Adversary, and his servants. If God wouldn’t answer his prayers, perhaps there are other ways to learn what he needed. It couldn’t hurt to ask, he thought.

Thus, Megastopheles appeared to him. Finulaus explained what he needed, while also being careful to not be deceived. He explained that the heat death of the universe imperiled his people, and that the entropy of the universe was far too great for what little fuel that had left.

The demon asked clearly and gentlemanly, “Do you want to stop or destroy entropy?” – which was exactly what Finulaus wanted.

Of course, the demon did make an effort to deceive Finulaus, but Finulaus saw through its deceptions. Finally, Finulaus was able to glean from it what he needed, a way to truly overcome entropy, and restrict and control it as low as he desired.

Finulaus dismissed the demon and immediately went to work and directed his people to build. The device’s full name was long and technical, but they typically, if inaccurately called it the Entropy Engine. Of course, their goal was to destroy entropy, not run on entropy because would have sounded most preposterous to them. He also spoke with rulers of other star systems, and convinced many of them to build their own Entropy Engines

It would be expensive and laborious to build, but once done, they could live virtually forever with plenty for all. They would make their world perfectly ordered – they would destroy entropy. He had truly out-witted the Devil.

Finally, the day came to turn it on. Small experimental devices appeared to work fine, but would the master device work? It demanded so much nuclear fuel, it was a risk and a gamble, but the majority of the people were firmly behind it, and any opposition was shouted down.

Amid much parade and spectacle, the moment came, and Finulaus turned the Entropy Engine on.

Their sun dimmed, dimmed further, until it was a flicker and cold winds began to blow, and the Machine began its work.

II.

A great distance away on his own world, Dr H Trismagnus simultaneously had all the time in the world, and not enough to save his people. He pondered the message from Finulaus and his claim to break the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Something about it made him uneasy. That was one of the most fundamental laws, even more fundamental than gravity or electromagnetism. The law was that entropy must always increase.

Of course, a simple refrigerator locally decreases entropy by cooling, but this was fundamentally different. This wasn’t merely shuffling heat and Entropy around. This was truly defeating it.

Yes, his own star shone with a cool dim red color, all it was capable of.

It was smaller and dimmer, without any more fuel than Finulaus’s, and he well knew humanity, and life itself, was staring down the heat death of the universe. The Heat Death of the Universe meant there was no available free energy to use, and no way to hold entropy off. It was a slow starvation of all Life. No free energy, no heat, no life – everything a uniform temperature, approaching Absolute Zero.

His own star was all that they had against the cold of space, and it was nearly dead. Disorder, Death and finally Darkness. And the Second Law of Thermodynamics ensured it. It was an ironclad law that entropy had to always increase, even if it meant death.

He prayed and fasted without an answer, until he concluded his uneasy feeling was an answer. Then with greater vigor, alone on his balcony, he sought God’s will, and timing, and to understand what was wrong with Finulaus’s Entropy Engine.

III.

Hermes prayed, “Oh God, you know our distress. The Heat Death of the Universe approaches. Our star is dying and our world grows cold. I see naught but future death and disorder unbounded. If I should not build an Entropy Engine, then what should I do?”

And as he prayed, he heard a voice, “Hermes, my son, be at peace and I will teach you my law. Behold, my law is for Entropy to increase and never decrease. This law I ordained before the foundations of the worlds, and before I set the stars in the Heavens. This is for this law that the War in Heaven was fought.

Exercise your heart and mind to understanding. If Entropy did not increase, all creation, truth and agency would come to naught.

This perplexed and puzzled, Hermes asked. He exclaimed, “Oh, God, thy will be done. Yet if this is so, then will death win? How can we continue to live without defeating entropy? Are you not the Resurrection and the Life? Is death and disorder the cost for creation and agency? Is there no hope against the Heat Death of the Universe? And why is disorder your law?”

The Lord’s voice was clear as sunlight. “My Law is Life. I am Life. But my words, they are subtle and profound.

Be at peace and understand, Hermes. Is it not written among you that Entropy is a statistical law? What doth this mean?

It means that Entropy is a measure of the number of ways things can be or become. You say, a plate may shatter because there are more ways for the broken pieces to be arranged, than there is for a whole plate. Life may end, because there are more ways to be dead, than alive, in your current state. Cold water and warm water mixed, will equilibrate because the cold water gains more freedom than the warm water loses. In your mortal state, you are particularly liable to sin, because you say, there are more ways to sin, than to be obedient. So you suppose that entropy is disorder.

But this is not true, save it be for a short time in my vineyard.

The Devil is a destroyer, and he teaches his children to destroy. Thus, sin is loss and the disobedient lose intelligence and light.

But I am the Lord, thy God, and I am more Intelligent than they all.

Therefore am I the Light and the Life of all Worlds.

I have given all men understanding and so they can create. Wiser men and spirits can create more. I am the Lord thy God. I am more Intelligent than they all, thus I am called CREATOR, because all things are within my power.”

Hermes saw, glimpsed, the number of things God could do with a shattered plate, and it far exceeded the ways for it to break. He could make it new and better. Impossibly better, refashioned into innumerable new forms.

In a flash, the entire plan of Salvation – He saw a Man on the Strait and Narrow Path, go from infant to Exalted – far more possibilities in the Celestial worlds, eternal lives, than there were ways to die. Infinitely more. People gaining intelligence and light and joy.

And he saw that hot and cold water separate into burning steam and biting ice. The implications of the physics stunned him. But why? And how?

And the Lord continued, “I hold the Keys of Death and Hell. I will explain your immortality – it is a consequence of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Even if I could be slain again, this is the law I would use to return to life. Death will not win, for in the Eternities, Entropy favors Life and Truth.

The Lord replied, “This is why the Devil knows he has a short time until Entropy is his enemy, instead of his tool. Thus he seeks to destroy intelligence. Damnation is to be limited, to be damned. But you are my children, children of God. You are destined to be creators, because I am Creator.”

Hermes cried aloud, “OH Lord, I begin to see! Entropy is the number of possible states. And greater intelligence can create more states. If you can create more states of life than death, then life is more probable. Once you are creating new possibilities (that is to say, creating entropy), then energy flows, naturally and mathematically, to the greater source of entropy!”

The hot and cold water – that was a classic classroom physics demonstration. Water was a stand-in for any material. But if intelligence meant some water had greater number of states than other water, then energy would flow to the higher entropy water. Under normal circumstances, that meant flowing from hot to cold, because the cold gained more “microstates” than the hot water lost. But if intelligence were a property of matter, and if that intelligence could make sufficient entropy, then energy would flow from cold to hot, from low entropy to high entropy, from the least intelligent to the most intelligent.

The Lord spoke, “This is why I established this law before the Big Bang, for Creation, Teaching and Agency.”

And far from understanding Entropy as disorder, Hermes saw it was possibilities.

As the vision closed, Hermes was left wondering, does this mean Creation in the long term will crowd out disorder, or is this creation of order even on the microscopic scales? No, not order. That wasn’t the right word. There was order, but this was creation of possibilities. Limitless possibilities. Simply, it was Life. Life, and Light unbounded.

II.

Hermes sat, stunned by what he had seen. The ideas in his mind seemed too grand to comprehend, let alone accomplish, but he called his wisest men and women, his scholars and craftsmen, and all his most talented people. He felt no little trepidation. This was not merely survival – it was life with such power it could easily be for good or ill.  He explained the principles of the Creation Engine, or rather Engines. He would likely have as many engines as he had people, if not multitudes more.

This was not defeating Entropy, it was putting it to its fullest use. Entropy was possibilities and energy naturally flowed to where there were more possibilities.

The first few engines barely improved things, yet were fascinating to work with. Further iterations harnessed disorder, even waste heat, into novel forms. The Creation engines worked on the large scale, small scale and every fractal scale in between.

Light and Life suffused his world until it glowed like the stars when the Universe was young.

And his star shone like a brilliant crystal in their sky matched only by the brilliance of the ground beneath their feet.

Then, it seemed a Golden Age, as death was crowded out by life in a thousand forms, human, animal, machine, and things still unrealized. Spiritual life revived as well.

I will not tell you they did not have problems, or that everything was always harmonious, but they did not have time for sin. It was a distraction to the work of Creation. And they joyed in it. Not even the Heat Death of the Universe, as they previously understood it, stood in their way.  Energy naturally flowed to them, and away from regions without Creation Engines.

I.

In order for Finulaus’s machine to work, they had to decide what order was. As Philosopher-King, this was his duty, and it was a heavy duty. But he organized everything, down to the last photon and electron. His people were obedient, perfectly obedient. They did just as he directed, not that they had a choice any more.

One day, as Finulaus had wrested the entropy down to quantum limits, nay surpassing quantum limits, the demon Megastopheles appeared to him again.

“I have beaten you, and you have not deceived me, foul demon!” the philosopher-king laughed.

“Did I need to? You have done my work for me. All I did was tell you how.” the demon said with an unpleasant and cruel expression on its face.

This worried Finulaus for a moment, but just as with physical matter, removing a bit of spiritual entropy would be trivial. He could technologically cast this noxious spirit out. “Leave this place, serpent! I rule this kingdom down to the last atom!”

“Of course”, the demon said with a grotesque smile that obscenely grew larger and larger. “Of course, all this began because you didn’t know as much as I. And you will be surprised to learn…   it will end that way as well.”

Megastopheles’s mouth opened to show a thousand blades in place of teeth, and a great black yawning, gaping chasm, that seemed to grow impossibly wide. Finulaus would have screamed, but his neural controls for Finulaus’s kingdom no longer were responsive to him. He seemed to be locked out. Instead, he found his knees bowing, with a dull and empty smile on his face as he screamed inwardly. And all of Finulaus’s people screamed as the demon took control.