At the initial stage of explosion, matter can only exist in the form of elementary particles such as neutrons, protons, electrons, photons and neutrinos. The continuous expansion after the explosion of the universe caused the temperature and density to drop rapidly. With the decrease and cooling of temperature, atoms, nuclei and molecules are gradually formed and combined into common gases. Gas gradually condensed into nebulae, which further formed various stars and galaxies, and finally formed the universe we see today.
1964, Penzies and Wilson of American Bell Telephone Company found that there was always an unexplained "noise" interference when assembling satellite communication antennas. They found that this is an indelible noise radiation, which is equivalent to a temperature of 3.5kK. This radiation can't come from any specific radiation source, but can only be a cosmic radiation. Later, Dick of Princeton University confirmed with them that this cosmic background radiation is the residual radiation of "primitive fireball". In this way, the cosmic background radiation provides a powerful basis for the big bang theory.
So, will the universe eventually change from an infinite high temperature to the same temperature everywhere? What is the final state of the universe?
1, entropy increasing principle
1864, the German physicist rudolf clausius first proposed the concept of entropy, which was used to express the uniformity of any kind of energy distribution in space. The more uniform the energy distribution, the greater the entropy. When the energy of a system is completely evenly distributed, the entropy of the system reaches the maximum. According to Clausius, in a system, if it is allowed to develop naturally, the energy difference always tends to be eliminated. Let a hot object contact a cold object, the hot object will cool, and the cold object will get hot until the two objects reach the same temperature.
The principle of entropy increase is the second law of thermodynamics. In thermodynamics, entropy is a physical quantity used to explain the irreversibility of thermal motion, which reflects that the thermal change process in nature is directional and irreversible.
1889, when Boltzmann used statistical methods to study the movement of gas molecules and the behavior of gas, he first put forward the microscopic explanation of entropy, which was further studied by Planck Gibbs, and the explanation became clearer. They believe that in a system composed of a large number of particles (atoms and molecules), entropy means that the degree of irregular arrangement between particles, or the degree of chaos of the system, is more "chaotic". The more orderly, the smaller the entropy.
Nature is made up of matter and energy. The first law of thermodynamics is the law of conservation of energy, and the second law is the law of entropy increase.
These two laws tell us that the total energy of the universe is a constant and the total entropy is increasing.
The total energy in the universe is fixed from the beginning and will never change. This means that we can neither create energy nor destroy it. What we can do is to change energy from one state to another. Everything in the world is produced by energy. The form, structure and movement of all things in the world are just concrete manifestations of different forms of energy gathering and transformation. A person, a building, a car or a blade of grass all embody energy that can be transformed from one form to another. The rise of tall buildings and the production of grass are consuming energy gathered in other places.
For example, when we burn a piece of coal, its energy does not disappear, but is transformed and discharged into space with gases such as sulfur dioxide. Although energy does not disappear during the combustion process, we can never burn the same coal to do the same work again. The second law of thermodynamics explains this phenomenon. It tells us that whenever energy changes from one state to another, we will be "punished". This punishment is called entropy.
Darwin's theory of evolution and entropy theory are two important scientific discoveries in the same historical period, both of which have played a significant role in promoting the development of science, but they are contradictory in the evolution law of things. Darwin's theory of evolution overthrew creationism, species invariance and catastrophe. The Origin of Species is a masterpiece of evolution, and "natural selection, survival of the fittest" is the evolutionary code of nature, which promotes species from low to high, from simple to complex, from disorder to order. Isn't this a violation of the law of entropy increase?
Schrodinger, a famous Austrian physicist and the founder of quantum mechanics, investigated and studied cells from the physicist's point of view in the book 1944 What is life, and finally put forward the concept of negative entropy and its relationship with biological growth and evolution. In this book, he put forward a famous assertion: "biology depends on negative entropy." He believes that a living organism is constantly increasing entropy, and when the entropy increases to the maximum, it is death. To get rid of death, we must live. The only way is to constantly absorb negative entropy from the environment to offset the increase of positive entropy in the body. The so-called negative entropy means that the entropy in the body can be reduced by eating, drinking and breathing, which is biologically called "metabolism". Only by inputting "negative entropy" and outputting "positive entropy" can we maintain the balance of the body, maintain our orderly state and avoid degenerating into a disorderly state of death.
Schrodinger's explanation of life made scientists finally admit that life, like other things in the world, can't escape from the iron palm of entropy law. Harold bloom wrote in a book entitled "Arrow of Time and Evolution": "The small and local decrease in entropy reflected by the growth of organisms is accompanied by a greater increase in the total entropy of the universe." In other words, all living things must rely on food consumption to maintain their lives, and excrement is "positive entropy". There is an ecological chain cycle in the short term. If the scale is large enough, in the long run, the total entropy of the universe will increase and eventually tend to the state of maximum entropy "thermal silence" (thermal balance). Of course, human beings are just passers-by of the earth and are dispensable to the universe. It's just a wonderful flower that occasionally blooms in the gap of the universe. In a short time, the energy of the sun and the earth can meet the needs of human beings.
Schrodinger's negative entropy theory bridged the gap between biology and physics in evolution, and attracted a considerable number of physicists to turn to life science 40 years later, creating a new situation in biological research.
According to the law of entropy, in a closed system, if there is no external energy, everything in the world will eventually develop in the direction of entropy increase, so the world will eventually become a pot of porridge, a pot of uniform and completely disordered porridge, an absolutely cold world without energy conversion and movement. But in the real world, everywhere is full of vibrant life, a vibrant scene. What species and structures challenge the law of entropy increase? What kind of organizational structure do they use to combat entropy increase?
Belgian physicist Prigozin put forward the theory of dissipative structure against entropy increase, and explained the principle of system against entropy increase in detail. 1977 won the nobel prize in chemistry. If Schrodinger's negative entropy connects the gap between physics and biology, then dissipative structure theory is the sublimation of negative entropy theory.
1, what is dissipative structure?
A nonlinear open system (whether it is physical, chemical, biological or even social and economic system) far away from equilibrium constantly exchanges materials and energy with the outside world. When the change of a parameter in the system reaches a certain threshold, the system may have a sudden change, that is, an unbalanced phase change, which changes from the original chaotic state to an orderly state in time, space or function through fluctuations. This new stable macro-ordered structure formed in the nonlinear region far from the equilibrium state is called "dissipative structure" because it needs to exchange substances or energy with the outside world to maintain it.
Prigozin's dissipative structure theory is based on the study of the second law of thermodynamics. He divided macro systems into three types.
One is an isolated system. It is a system that does not exchange material and energy with the surrounding environment. The operation of this system follows the second law of thermodynamics. With the passage of time, it tends to be in equilibrium, and the equilibrium state of thermodynamics refers to the dead state with the largest entropy increase. And we often say that economic balance and physical balance are two concepts. The balance of life is the balance of energy and material exchange, not the state of thermal equilibrium, so don't confuse these two concepts.
The second is a closed system. It exchanges energy with the external environment, not matter. Generally speaking, its macro-system is almost isolated, and its running state also follows the second law of thermodynamics for a long time. For example, the earth is a closed system. The earth only exchanges energy with the sun, not with other planets. Occasionally, a meteor shower will turn into a few meteorites. Sometimes, satellites are sent into space, and besides, the amount of matter entering and leaving the earth is very small. So the earth is a closed system and will eventually die.
The third is the open system. It not only exchanges energy with the outside world, but also exchanges substances with the outside world. Biological system, economic system, social system and city are all open systems. For example, living things can exchange energy and substances with the external environment by eating, drinking, breathing and excreting, thus keeping themselves away from balance.
Only dissipative structure can resist the death brought by the increase of entropy. How does dissipative structure resist entropy increase?
1, the system must be open.
Only an open system can exchange material and energy with the outside world. For example, cells, animals, plants and cities are all open systems. Plants grow by absorbing nutrients from soil and energy from the sun through photosynthesis to resist the increase of entropy. Animals get energy by eating, drinking and breathing to maintain their growth. Only by opening up and absorbing external energy can cities operate in an orderly manner. If the organism is closed, the entropy will soon increase to death.
2. Introduce high-quality negative entropy flow.
Any living body must introduce negative entropy to combat entropy increase. Life needs high quality negative entropy to stay healthy. For example, humans can only stay healthy by eating healthy food, and if they eat wild animals such as bats and civets, they may be infected by viruses, leading to infectious pneumonia, which will eventually harm others and themselves. By the same token, a country, a society and an enterprise can only fight against disorder by introducing excellent talents. If bad guys such as drug dealers and terrorists are introduced, the disorder of the organization will be accelerated.
3. Keep the balance between entropy increase and entropy decrease.
No matter how high the quality of negative entropy flow is, it cannot be taken in too much. It is necessary to keep the measurement of negative entropy and entropy increase, and keep the balance of entropy decrease and entropy increase to ensure the effective operation of the system. For example, excessive intake of negative entropy flow will lead to obesity. Obesity is to store fat to fight hunger, but hunger has been basically eliminated in modern society, so the increase of fat is not good for human body. For the health of the body, it must be dispersed and consumed through physical exercise, otherwise it will lead to all kinds of obesity. According to physics, human diseases are all caused by too large entropy, and too much accumulation will lead to diseases. This is the "metabolism" of organisms, and the balance between energy intake and waste discharge can ensure good health.
1, entropy and ecology
Any living thing must consume energy to survive. Humans are no exception. The development of human civilization is based on the utilization of energy. In the first agricultural revolution, energy supply mainly depended on manpower, animal power and natural forces such as water and wind.
In the second industrial revolution, the energy supply was mainly mineral energy such as coal, oil and natural gas. These mineral energy sources are non-renewable and will be exhausted one day. If the energy supply of agricultural revolution is the benefit of the earth, the energy supply of industrial revolution is devouring the capital of the earth, and capital will be swallowed up one day. World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) jointly published the report "Earth Ecology" in 2000, which pointed out: "If human beings continue to consume the earth's resources at the current rate, all natural resources in the future will be exhausted before 2075".
By absorbing energy from the surrounding environment, organisms can develop in the opposite direction to the process of entropy. The ultimate source of this energy is the sun. All animals and plants depend on the sun for survival. Some rely directly on the sun, such as plants that carry out photosynthesis, while others rely indirectly on the sun, such as herbivores and carnivores.
Bertrand Russell said: "Every living thing is like an imperialist. It tries its best to transform the energy of the environment into itself and its descendants." In this process of plundering energy, every life is consuming energy. Plants absorb negative entropy from sunlight through photosynthesis. In the process of photosynthesis, only a small part of solar energy is absorbed and utilized, and the rest is dissipated. The decrease of entropy in plants is very small, but the loss of energy in the whole environment is huge.
In the whole ecosystem, countless creatures form a food ecological chain, and the maintenance of the ecological chain needs to consume more energy, which will form a greater entropy increase. Chemist G Taylor Miller used a very simple food chain example to illustrate this problem. This food chain consists of grass, grasshoppers, frogs, salmon and humans. According to the first law of thermodynamics, energy will not decrease. But according to the second law, every link in the food chain will convert effective energy into invalid energy, thus making the whole system lose more order.
Every link in the ecosystem, such as grasshoppers eating grass, frogs eating grasshoppers and salmon eating frogs, will lose some energy. Miller pointed out that in the process of the law of the jungle, "about 80%-90% of energy is completely wasted and lost in the environment in the form of heat." Only 10%-20% of the absorbed energy remains in carnivores and is transformed into the next link in the food chain. Think about how many biological individuals are needed to keep a biological species from falling into the maximum entropy. "A person needs to eat 300 salmon every year. These salmon need to eat 90 thousand frogs. These frogs need to eat 27 million grasshoppers, and these grasshoppers need to eat 1 1,000 tons of grass. "
Therefore, in order to maintain a person's "order" state, it takes 1000 tons of energy contained in grass every year. And how much soil does grass need to consume to provide the minerals and water it needs? Although sunlight is free for the earth in the short term, the minerals in the soil are limited and it is difficult to recover once they are exhausted. Just like farmland now, planting crops requires fertilization. If there is no fertilizer, the yield of crops is extremely low.
Therefore, the order of entropy reduction of every living thing on the earth is based on the entropy increase and pollution of the environment.
We think that biological evolution is progress. However, we find that the more advanced creatures consume more energy, the more chaos they bring to the universe.
How can we delay the entropy increase of the earth?
First, try to improve the utilization rate of external energy (water power, wind power, light energy and tidal energy). Solar energy is almost the only external energy on the earth, which is manifested in hydropower, wind energy and light energy. The energy transmitted to the earth per second is173,000 watts (Taiwa,10/2 watts), which is equivalent to burning 5 million tons of coal per second. Another external energy source is gravitational energy (manifested as tidal energy), which is actually provided by the sun. Imagine how much oil and coal will be saved if every building, every house, every car and every glass in the future can be converted into electric energy by solar energy to achieve self-sufficiency.
Second, try to improve the "efficiency" of the use of mineral energy on the earth. For example, steel mills need to burn a lot of coal, which provides energy for steel mills in the process of combustion, but most of it is converted into pollutants, waste water, waste gas and waste. These pollutants have caused great damage to the ecology, resulting in barren land and the extinction of fish and shrimp in rivers.
In addition to coal, there are also oil and nuclear energy, which will produce a lot of waste, especially nuclear waste. So far, there is no absolutely safe treatment. They are either buried in the deep sea or in a stable stratum, which is irresponsible to only care about today and ignore tomorrow. The decay period of nuclear waste is very long, from thousands to billions of years. It can be said that when people release them from Pandora's box, they can no longer be imprisoned.
Therefore, the total amount of mineral energy is limited, so we must improve the utilization efficiency and waste utilization rate to reduce the entropy increase of the earth and safeguard the common home of mankind.
Third, get energy from other planets.
With the exploration of the universe, it may be possible to find new energy sources from other galaxies to provide energy for mankind. If it is really possible to exchange materials with other planets on a large scale at low cost, then the earth will no longer be a closed system, and the earth will evolve into an open system because of the existence of human beings. Of course, this is just an imagination.
2. Entropy and society
(1) social opening and talent flow
If any society is closed, it is easy to fall behind. The development of history has fully proved this point. The era of agricultural civilization is basically an iterative dynasty with a cycle of 300 years. When all emerging dynasties first came to power, they were all open, and officials used talents, energy and talents frequently flowed up and down. Once the status of the dynasty is consolidated, there will be a state of class solidification and bloated bureaucracy. In the use of talents, it is cronyism, and finally it becomes a mediocre country.
The Qin Dynasty was able to unify the six countries by being good at employing people. Many generals and counsellors are foreigners, while the bureaucracy in other countries is seriously solidified, resulting in the loss of many outstanding talents.
The closed-door policy of the Qing Dynasty led to our backwardness for nearly 200 years. The reform and opening up has enabled China to take off again and return to the world stage. Through reform and development, Deng Xiaoping opened its doors and established an open social system with dissipative structure, which allowed the free flow of materials and energy, promoted the negative entropy inflow of cities and foreign countries, thus counteracting the entropy increase of society and reviving the strength of China. The most dynamic place in China is Shenzhen, because more than 95% of the population in Shenzhen are immigrants. Excellent immigrants can inject negative entropy into urban development and make urban development more dynamic. The most dynamic place in the world is the United States, where excellent immigrants from all over the world gather. The most dynamic place in the United States is the west coast, because it is the place with the most new immigrants, such as Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Therefore, social development and progress must rely on the inflow of negative entropy, so as to resist the increase of social entropy. Only by establishing an open dissipative structure can we stay away from equilibrium and make society full of vitality.
(2) Social norms and interests balance
In order to maximize negative entropy, human society should not only "open source" but also "reduce expenditure". The survival and development of human beings need competition and consumption of negative entropy, which is a life instinct, but this kind of competition and consumption will inevitably increase the entropy of society, which is not conducive to the maintenance and development of social systems, nor to the survival and development of social individuals. As a result, human society has gradually formed a large number of social norms such as taboos, religion, morality and law. The main function of these social norms is to restrain the increase of social entropy. By advocating the concepts of saving less desires, restraining evil and promoting good, being friendly and modest, being selfless, being fair and just, we can control desires, reconcile competition and maintain a benign social order, thus reducing the entropy increase caused by individual activities to society and balancing individual interests with collective interests, short-term interests and long-term interests.
3. Entropy and Enterprise
Enterprise is also a system, and the main contradiction in the evolution of enterprise system is the contradiction between the increase of management entropy and the decrease of management entropy. If the enterprise is not open enough, it can't input negative entropy flow, which leads to the increase of entropy. Huawei introduced the concept of "entropy" into enterprises, established negative entropy organizations, and made enterprises full of vitality.
On the one hand, Huawei has realized the dissipative structure characteristics far from balance through the accumulation of enterprises and the pump of human resources, which makes enterprises do reverse work and turn enterprises from disorder to orderly development.
On the other hand, Huawei realizes the opening of dissipative structure through the open cooperation of enterprises and the opening of human resources, absorbs cosmic energy from the entrance and exit of the model, and brings external kinetic energy to the orderly development of enterprises.
The whole Huawei company follows this entropy reduction mechanism and spits out old skills and ideas by establishing dissipative structure. Introduce new openness, break the balance and negative entropy factors, and then realize the old elimination and new absorption.
The reason why enterprises can move from aging to new life is the entropy reduction effect. Only by constructing dissipative structure and introducing negative entropy flow can we stay away from equilibrium, constantly innovate and subvert ourselves, thus re-creating value for customers.
4. Entropy and life
(1) material entropy
The mission given by nature to every living thing is to survive and reproduce, and human beings are no exception. All human cultural creation is for better survival. In order to survive better, we created more and more wealth, so we began to consume recklessly, eating new and exotic foods and even eating bats. Wearing the fur of wild animals. With expensive utensils, this kind of unrestrained material satisfaction will not bring happiness to mankind in the end, but will only make your mind more empty and accelerate the entropy increase of the earth. Only by returning to simplicity and controlling life can we benefit ourselves, others and society.
Jobs, Buffett and Charles Munger are all billionaires, but they live a very simple life. Oversatisfying material desires will only waste social energy, and it will also make you fat and empty, which is not conducive to your physical and mental health. Therefore, each of us must learn to "break free", pursue a simple and simple life, balance the relationship between man and nature, and restrain the excessive pursuit of material desires in order to live the meaning of life. As religion advocates: "The ultimate goal of life is not to satisfy all material desires, but to live in harmony with nature".
(2) Information entropy
Nature is composed of five elements: matter, energy, information, time and space, which are organic and complex. Human beings understand and transform nature through perception, cognition, analysis, accumulation and inheritance. Humans find valuable information from big data through observation, and then integrate this information into knowledge and use it to transform the world. Information is the expression of the state and motion characteristics of objective things, and it is the result of meaningful sorting of data. Through information, human beings can understand nature. The more information, the truer it is, and the more accurate it may be.
Shannon, the founder of information theory, defines information as "information is used to eliminate random uncertainty, and it is a description of the uncertainty of the motion state or existence form of things". Shannon cited the entropy of thermodynamics and put forward the concept of "information entropy" for the first time, which means the physical quantity of information flow disorder. The more orderly the system is, the lower the information entropy is. Conversely, the more chaotic the system, the higher the information entropy.
Now is an era of information explosion. In the ocean of big data, whether you can obtain valuable information and calculate and process it efficiently determines the ability of a person or an organization.
From a personal point of view, according to the relevant laws of information entropy, the more knowledge a person has, the more knowledge he absorbs. For the same information source, the more people have knowledge, the more knowledge they can get from it. If you put yourself in a closed environment and don't care about and accept new knowledge and information, it will lead to the aging of knowledge, which means that the information entropy will increase. In order to prevent knowledge aging and mental decline, we should constantly absorb new knowledge from the outside world, organize it and store it in our brains in a structured way. Just like the "grid theory" put forward by Mr. Charles Munger, the important thinking modes of important disciplines are all structured in their own thinking grids.
From the organizational point of view, whether you can get valuable new information and knowledge in the market, judge the future through data modeling and analysis, and make market-leading behavior determines the success or failure of an enterprise. In the era of artificial intelligence, big data, algorithms and computing speed are the magic weapons for organizations to win. Man has made a breakthrough in computing speed. Google's quantum computer is a subversive product, which can complete the task of the world's fastest computer 1 ten thousand years in 200 seconds. In the future, it will be able to undertake the extremely arduous task of cracking cell and DNA codes (the calculation of cell cracking is much higher than that of spacecraft), which will definitely produce great changes in the world.
The future world is complex and the information is huge. The magic weapon to win in the information age is: super learning ability+high quality information+algorithm model+quantum computer.
(3) Spiritual entropy
Professor Mihaly, the author of Flow, believes that we receive too much information every day, and our brains are full of chaos and disorder. This is "spiritual entropy". Just like molecules, countless ideas are constantly spreading in Ma Benteng. When entropy increases, countless ideas in the brain conflict with each other, competing for your attention and grabbing control of your brain. At this time, your brain is like gas in a hot pot. There are no ties and connections between ideas, and they spread in different directions. Your heart is chaotic and your entropy is high. When the entropy value decreases, the thoughts in the brain move in one direction and become orderly, and the psychological energy is organized around the same theme and efficiently output in the same direction. At this time, our thinking is clear and our heads are clear. Devote yourself to the present experience, so as to realize "flow".
Mihaly said that "it is normal for the spiritual entropy to increase". When the spiritual entropy is relatively high, a lot of psychological energy is wasted on internal friction under chaos. The way to combat the increase of spiritual entropy is to obtain "flow". Once you enter the flow state, you will get the best state. For example, when we are reading, meditating and meditating, the entropy value in our hearts is reduced to a minimum, and all other thoughts disappear. When you face the current activities alone, your mind is as transparent as ice crystals, and your thoughts are as smooth as snow water. We forget everything and completely immerse ourselves in the present, thus gaining a flow experience.
The laws of thermodynamics provide a comprehensive scientific framework for all material activities in the world. In the words of Frederic Soddy, the Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, the laws of thermodynamics "ultimately control the rise and fall of political system, the freedom and slavery of the country, the lifeblood of industry and commerce, the origin of poverty and affluence, and the general material welfare of human beings", and every material activity that human beings participate in is strictly restricted by the first and second laws of thermodynamics.
Einstein said that "entropy theory is the first law of the whole science". The law of entropy is an awesome concept. Our objective world will one day complete its journey and cease to exist. However, we don't want to accept the fact, but the law of entropy tells us that the whole world is temporary. In a limited world, we are aware of our vulnerability; Because the nature of the world is fragile, so is our nature.
The world is increasing entropy, which is a natural law. He brought us a new world view, let us put down our arrogance and walk down the altar, because no matter how powerful human beings are, they can't escape the iron law of entropy increase. The only hope for human survival is to give up the plunder of the earth and adapt to the natural order. It is not weakness that defeats us, but arrogance. Only by acknowledging the finiteness of the world can we truly appreciate the preciousness of the earth. Only with awe can we realize the meaning of life.
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