antw. re: What about Entropy?

Fri Jan 31 02:11:13 CST 2003

Eddie Bettano schrieb:

> > Poem for a dying cough tied behind the clown mobile.

> > What about entropy? 
> > What about it? 
> > What? 
> > Wha? 
> > Wa? 
> > Wa, wa, all this wa wa....

> >    --E

> > In GR, Slothrop discovers that Entropy(ies) is/are
> > THEIR'S. 
> >  entropy is the loss of information in a transmitted
> > message. 
> > Enzian also discovers that Entropy(ies) is/are
> > THEIRS.

> > Entropy is a measure of the disorder or randomness
> > in
> > a closed system. 
> > Entropy is the tendency for all matter and energy in
> > the universe 
> > to evolve toward a state of inert uniformity. 

> > See GR (302, 324).

> > Notice how it is that Enzian grows cold (324). 

> > Slothrop also grows cold. In fact, Slothrop becomes
> > so
> > cold he can't feel anything at all. 

    yet after turning away from THEIR system sloth recovers and feels with his  
    sow  "just natural". see also wilhelm reich's 'deconstruction' of        
    thermodynamics' second law:

    "wir müssen den lebenden organismus als organisierten teil des kosmischen 
    orgonozeans sehen, der bestimmte, 'leben' genannte eigenschaften hat; wir 
    können diesen organismus nicht BIOENERGETISCH verstehen, wenn wir am 
    mechanischen energiepotential festhalten. dieses mechanische potential, sei 
    es thermische, elektrische oder mechanische bewegung, ist immer vom höheren 
    zum niedrigeren oder vom stärkeren zum schwächeren system gerichtet und 
    niemals umgekehrt. andererseits wäre es für den lebenden organismus nicht 
    nur  n i c h t  möglich, ein höheres energieniveau als die umgebung 
    aufrechtzuerhalten; er würde auch seine wärme, seine beweglichkeit, seine 
    energie in kürzester zeit an die umgebung mit ihrem geringeren energieniveau 
    verlieren. und die frage würde unbeantwortet bleiben, wieso ein organismus 
    überhaupt entstehen konnte. wir können nicht an der tatsache vorbeigehen, 
    dass es in der natur eine andere energiefunktion gibt, unser sogenanntes 
    UMGEKEHRTES, ORGONOMISCHES POTENTIAL; DIE ORGONENERGIE FLIESST VOM     
    SCHWÄCHEREN ODER NIEDRIGEREN ZUM STÄRKEREN ODER HÖHEREN SYSTEM. das 
    entspricht nicht nur den grundfunktionen lebender organismen, sondern kann 
    auch unmittelbar in der leblosen natur beobachtet werden, wie zum beispiel 
    die funktion der schwerkraft [!] oder das 'wachstum' von wolken am himmel.

    das orgonomische potential widerspricht nicht dem alten mechanischen 
    potential. tatsächlich erklärt es, wie ein höheres energieniveau überhaupt 
    existieren kann. es stimmt, dass mit dem akzeptieren dieser funktion der 
    'II. hauptsatz der thermodynamik', der 'entropiesatz' in seiner absoluten 
    fassung, ungültig wird. wir wissen, dass viele physiker mit diesem gesetz 
    ohnehin nicht glücklich sind, und wir mussten viele andere glaubenssätze 
    absoluter art aufgeben, zum beispiel die erhaltung der masse oder die 
    unwandelbarkeit der chemischen elemente. (...)

    es gibt nicht nur einen prozess der dissipation von energie in form von 
    wärme, sondern auch den umgekehrten prozess der konzentration von energie."

                     ~~~ WR: Äther, Gott und Teufel [1949], chapter 6 ~~~   

    no, i don't think you us-citizens should go now to the public library and 
    order some writings of wilhelm reich. at least not in combination with "war 
    and peace" or "minima moralia". you know, THEIR software-agents are watching 
    you....

                                                          KFL *

> > Some definitions that go with Entropy:   
> > 
> > 
> > Centrifugal:  Moving or  directed away from a center
> > or axis. 2. Operated by means of
> >  centrifugal force. 3. Physiology. Transmitting
> > nerve
> >  impulses away from the central nervous system;
> > efferent. 4. Botany. Developing or progressing
> > outward
> > from a center or axis, as in a flower cluster in
> > which
> > the oldest flowers are in the center and the
> > youngest
> > flowers are near the edge. 5. Tending or directed
> > away
> > from centralization, as of authority: "The division
> > of
> > Europe into two warring blocs, each ultimately
> > dependent on a superpower patron, is subject
> > to ever-increasing centrifugal stress" (Scott
> > Sullivan).
> > 
> > In GR there is "centrifugal History" (737) 
> > 
> > and there is centripetal History--"gravitational
> > collapse" (737). 
> > 
> > Centripetal: Moving or directed  toward a center or
> > axis. 2. Operated by means of centripetal  force. 3.
> > Physiology. Transmitting nerve impulses toward the
> >  central nervous system; afferent. 4. Botany.
> > Developing or progressing inward toward the center
> > or
> > axis, as in the head of a sunflower, in which the
> > oldest flowers are near the edge and the youngest
> > flowers are in the center. 5. Tending
> > or directed toward centralization: the centripetal
> > effects of a homogeneous population. 
> > 
> >  As readers of Postmodern fiction we can think of
> > Entropy as a fictional analogue to
> > the physical process we find in the second law of
> > thermodynamics. We immediately connect this to
> > Thomas
> > Pynchon, but he was not the first author to use
> > Entropy in his fictions. I don't believe Pynchon is
> > all that interested in the second law of
> > Thermodynamics and I don't think he knows a hell of
> > a
> > lot about it. Again, it seems clear that Pynchon is
> > being honest in the Introduction to SL when he
> > admits
> > how little he understood  these matters and how
> > little
> > they really matter. Early Pynchon critics were
> > convinced that P was not a poet but a scientist who
> > wrote poetry and that to understand his fiction
> > readers needed to know at least as much about
> > science
> > as literature. Well, they were wrong. Entropy is
> > useful to Pynchon as poet. 
> > 
> > Entropy in GR advances towards
> >   "isotropy" (124), 
> > 
> > Identical in all directions; invariant with respect
> > to
> > direction.
> > "inertia" (209) , 
> > Physics. The tendency of a body
> > to resist acceleration; the tendency of a body at
> > rest
> > to remain at rest or of a body in motion to stay in
> > motion in a straight line unless acted on by an
> > outside force. 2. Resistance or disinclination to
> > motion, action, or change: the inertia of an
> > entrenched bureaucracy. See INERT. 
> > 
> > "Vacuum" (239), 
> >  Absence of matter. b. A space empty
> >  of matter. c. A space relatively empty of matter.
> > d.
> > A space in which the pressure is significantly lower
> > than
> >  atmospheric pressure. 2. A state of emptiness; a
> > void. 3. A state of being sealed off from external
> > or
> > environmental influences; isolation. 4., pl.
> > vac·uums.
> > A vacuum cleaner. --vac·u·um adj. 1. Of, relating
> > to,
> > or used to create a vacuum. 2. Containing air or
> > other
> > gas at a reduced pressure. 3. Operating by means of
> > suction or by maintaining a partial vacuum. 
> > Important derivatives are: 
> > wane, want, vanish,  vacant, vacation, vacuum, void,
> > avoid, evacuate, and WASTE. 
> >  progressing in a "long rallentando" in infinite
> > series, term by term dying
never quite to the
> > zero
."
> > (149) and thus only approaching the Final Zero" 
> > asymptotically ( 319). 
> > 
> > 
> > Gradually slackening in tempo; ritardando. Used
> > chiefly as a direction. -- A rallentando passage or
> > movement. [Italian, present participle of
> > rallentare,
> > to slow down. 
> > 
> > Asymptote  Mathematics. A line considered a limit to
> > a
> > curve in the sense that the
> > perpendicular distance from a moving point on the
> > curve to the line approaches zero as the point moves
> > an infinite distance from the origin. 

> > Entropy is an historical/psychological  process, a
> >  dispersion, interminable fragmenting. An 
> >  atomization/voiding of the WHOLE or subject/object,
> > the self from the self, man from man, man from god,
> > man from earth. A Fall and another Fall. 
> > In GR, Entropy is the Second Fall of Man. 
> > 