The Entropy Engine (3 of 3)

Entropy Engine Ch. III

The Entropy Engines, in the end, resembled nothing so much as enormous black holes, that grew with uncanny speed. Their event horizons spanned light years, blotting out significant parts of the sky.

The Creation Engines, in contrast, gave their creators an embarrassment of riches.

The new Golden Age for worlds with Creation Engines had created stress with their neighbors, though admittedly far less than their trouble with nearby Entropy Engines. But the stress was getting worse, as energy flowed preferentially towards Hermes’s worlds, and those like it.

It was under these circumstances, that Hermes consulted with Dædeleus, and the wisest of their friends, to know what to do. After a long and thoughtful discussion and study, they set upon a solution. Thus, a council of worlds was called, for those who would attend.

Anticipation was mingled with both excitement and dread. The council was packed to overflowing, with many attendees representing numerous other worlds unable to attend, from all over the Virgo Cluster, and even more distant than that.

Hermes stood in front of the great assembly, and spoke, “I know the great question one our minds, is what are we going to do. The danger posed by these Entropy Engines is steadily moving towards us.

A short time ago, our greatest concern was the slow and steady approach of the Heat Death of the Universe – a deadly equilibrium hostile to life. The amount of free energy in the universe was running out. Our stars were growing cold and it was getting harder and harder to live. Now, we have an embarrassment of riches for those who will seek them.

The real question is, how much can you handle? Many of you have built Creation Engines, and some have built a multitude of them. Others of you are simply more interested in an uninterrupted life.

Our choice is either war, or something far more radical.

In any case, what is important to understand is that the equilibrium we had before both Entropy Engines and Creation Engines is gone.

Equilibrium has been disturbed and I see no way for us to return to the way things were before.

Now it is our universe that is old. We’re all born to make a choice, and now it is imperative that we actually make that choice.

Many of us have grown warm and rich with creating life, so called Creation Engines. Others have chosen to not use them, or use them sparingly. But Energy flows away from many of your worlds, leaving you with less. Those of us with Creation Engines have sought to help, but we can see the problem and know it is getting worse. On the other hand, you have numerous event horizons from Entropy Engines, growing far faster than any Black Hole would be capable of. These are not dangers we can long ignore.

Dædeleus arose to speak.

The danger posed by the Entropy Engines is simple yet profound: to destroy entropy is to fundamentally destroy information, and that is to destroy life. Without the knowledge of what has been, there can be no continuity, no future. Forgetting isn’t just losing the past—it’s losing the thread that connects choice to consequence, action to meaning.

When I was young, I supposed it was a great defect, that we should be judged according to what we believe. But now that I am old, I see clearly that the truth we accept will directly determine the laws we are willing to live and what we are willing to do. Sometimes, what we choose to believe is a true reflection of our innermost self.

Choice, the essence of agency, requires the retention of information. Without memory, there is no foundation for decision, and the universe becomes a deterministic clockwork universe with no possible meaningful choices.

This death is physical, mental and even spiritual. And considering laws require information, are we also looking at the destruction of law? Not merely destroying our memory of consequences, but destroying cause and effect as we know it.

The danger posed by the entropy engines is the destruction of life, and more particularly, our souls.

Thus, we have two great dangers, both the Heat Death of the Universe and approaching event horizon of the entropy engines. Death either by slowly freezing, or by forceful destruction of entropy. The second danger being the destruction of life and of mind.

How much life are you willing to receive? How much are you willing to believe? How great are the laws you are willing to live?

Thus, we propose a great choice – how much are we willing to receive?

Our worlds are already linked by small wormholes. Let us enlarge those wormholes so that we can move worlds around.

Worlds actively destroying entropy (truth or information) will not be allowed near those who do not. We will call these Telestial. We will leave them in their own area, distant from us.

Worlds that do not destroy entropy, but that are also without Creation Engines group together, according the amount of truth (that is to say, information, or entropy) they can contain or they can handle. We will call these Terrestrial.

Worlds actively creating truth (information, entropy), we will call Celestial. They will be grouped according to how much light and truth they have.

 We will separate these regions, so that difference in entropy creation does not rob the lesser ones of all their energy. This is not an utter separation – visitation is still an option. But this will preserve each world according to what their inhabitants desire and are willing to do.

Thus, we will preserve what life you have, with either destroying what you have, or forcing you to do what you are unwilling to do.

The meeting had gone as well as Hermes could hope. Things would never be the same, but this would give everyone the opportunity to have as much as they desired, while also limiting the danger that the Entropy Engines posed.

Out of all worlds, across the wide expanse of space, and even across greater distances than his people knew about, people moved to the worlds with the greatest Creation Engines they could handle. They were moved to safety, and to where they would not compete with other worlds – separated, but close enough to interact if needed. Where their previous life had been marked by scrambling against poverty, their ultimate eternal struggle was to see just how much they were willing to receive.

Notes:

This chapter was also written as three contrasting elements: specifically Temporal/Spiritual/Synthesis. This is the same as chapter 2, but this was written with three chiasmuses (chiasmi).

This chapter is admittedly a little more speculative, but it is a logical consequence if we posit the regions where increased intelligence means greater entropy production and greater life.

Now, I certainly can not say this is why the Three Degrees of Glory are separated, but I can say that a similar separation would be necessary between regions with different rates of entropy production otherwise energy flow would leave everyone with nothing, except the people at the top. This would also suggest a degree of separation even between two worlds with similar but different degrees of entropy production. It is meant to protect them.

Now, regarding those in the end of this story, who are still enthralled by the Entropy Engines, I do not mean to suggest that this is necessarily their ultimate end, but that would be a story for a later time.