Locked into Entropy

The temptress of time

the master orchestrator

entropy locks in our fate

the keys nowhere to be found

She’s the curve of spiralled guardrails

that all motions obey

at the helm of all becoming,

the conductor 

and

the stage

Light beams pulse 

through neon veins, 

ports,

pipelines,

and prairies,

crafting new webs of energy 

for the world to consume 

Electrons flow to hearts and muscles

that consume to build something 

larger than themselves 

The end 

begets 

the start

An untempered ambition 

with a fatal dependency

Is this a curse?

or means for greater purpose?

only time 

will tell 

3D objects traded liquid: 

irresistible drops

become gulps, 

become 

thirst 

We try keep our cups 

full to the brim

as we pour liquid down funnels

to create objects again

The force slices and dices,

what was once whole becomes woven

into threads, 

bytes,

and bits

making hot chips, 

microchips, 

poker chips

which are then gambled away 

Can we make the game larger? 

Forever yearning,

unsatisfied,

clawing our way to the top

but with the slip of our talons 

we shred our ammunition 

Will there be more we can use?

Handcuffed to the highway 

of innovation and speed,

slamming butterflies into walls

and bruising hips of ocean bodies 

All the while 

leaning in close,

kissing 

the neck of hope,

and whispering in her ear

that it will all be okay

It continues on and on

until the last vein runs dry

and the friendly giant 

lays down 

his gnawed, invisible hand 

We’re now locked in

to the second law 

positive entropy,

a ceaseless force

And so one day we will look back

and remember the great scatter:

of resources,

casualties of inefficiency,

fallen soldiers, 

hoisted into stockpiles

We will remember how we wrestled, 

sliced,

and wrangled

the waves of matter that lay before us,

to try to build ourselves

a better home

How disorder unravelled faster 

and faster 

until the thread 

was all spun

Our crazed roller coaster 

on the spiralled guardrails on fate

we did nothing but be born

unable to stop 

If entropy has locked our fate,

then where are the keys?

Well,

we swallowed them

of course

because we were

hungry 

----

An explainer for curious readers:

Have you ever worked on an excel spreadsheet and ran into a “circular reference” error? (Yes, I’m daring to venture into microsoft 365 territory right now). It’s when you try to reference another cell, only to realise it’s already linked to the cell you’re already in - and the whole spreadsheet breaks. 

Well, a very similar circular reference problem is playing out between thermodynamic law, human desires, and the earth’s natural systems:

• Entropy: Entropy is the second law of thermodynamics. Understand this law, and you will understand one of the most fundamental driving forces of our world. Now I will say this - it’s one of those concepts that you think you understand one day, and then a new angle of it is revealed another day, and a whole new thing to understand opens up (that’s why it intrigues me so much, I feel like it’s always one grasp away from fully understanding). Entropy is the thermodynamic arrow of time, and ever since the Big Bang, is always increasing in the universe. It’s what pushes everything into more complicated configurations, and is what drive things to generate into more “useful” forms which involves inefficiencies and losses. 
• Human Desires and Needs: Humans heal themselves through creating lives of their dreams. This often involves creating and consuming goods and services to increase their utility - aiming to satisfy the most alluring and lofty desires of status down to the most basic needs of food and shelter. The industrial ecosystem apparatus we have built to serve this - and all of the physical capital it produces - forms the “technosphere”. This is the only human-made earth sphere, which sits among all of the other earth spheres such as the biosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and lithosphere. The technosphere is dependent on these other spheres to exist, for operational inputs such as raw materials and essential maintenance services (e.g. providing fresh water, cleaning the air). Unfortunately, for the technosphere to exist, it also will inevitably damage these spheres as it grows, and will consume raw materials that are finite and irreplaceable. The most fundamental human needs and most lofty desires are critically dependent on these finite raw materials, natural assets, and essential maintenance services.
• Earth System Desires and Needs: As mentioned, the earth has many different earth spheres, which are complex, interlinked systems of natural processes and resources. At the global earth system level, a useful ledger for the general health of these spheres are the “planetary boundaries” (ask me about the product-level ledger and I will talk your ear off about Life Cycle Assessment). These ““planetary boundaries” are a set of the most critical environmental processes that regulate Earth’s stability, including climate change impact, acidification, biosphere integrity, and land system change. When these boundaries are crossed, damage to the maintenance services and natural assets ensue (this topic is a whole essay in itself, so I will just leave this here). This directly damages human’s access to their needs and desires.

We could easily say that it seems human desires and needs contradict earth desires and needs. But that would be missing the point. Because, actually, human desires and needs contradict themselves all on their own, without even involving the earth. The earth just represents a whole body of systems, with its own set of boundaries, that we have to destroy before we really destroy ourselves and our own boundaries - and truly short-circuit. 

Underpinning all of this is entropy. Entropy sets the conditions that creates this whole show, and perhaps if this law were different the contradiction wouldn't exist. But equally, without this law, life wouldn't be life. So really, fundamentally, we are locked-in to this contradiction and will just have to see what wins-out as we push the system's limits. Will the spreadsheet break? Can we innovate a solution, even a quasi-solution?

This is the circular reference, the very tension the poem explores.