I remember sitting in my high school chemistry classes and learning how thermal energy systems flow from high temperature regions to low temperature regions. We also learned that, via the 2nd law of thermodynamics, entropy can give information about the evolution of an isolated system-such that if snapshots of a system at two different times shows one state which is more disordered, then we can determine "time's arrow". In other words, the natural course of events for an isolated system is to move to a higher entropy (disordered) state.....but can it go the other way?
Enter Luigi Fantappie, an Italian mathematician. If the law of entropy (en=diverging, tropos=tendency) exists then its opposite must do as well. Syntropy (syn=converging, tropos= tendency) describes energy that concentrates and leads to increase differentiation, complexity, structures and order. Fantappie noticed these properties in living systems and came to the conclusion that life is moved by final causes. His mathematics (and now random number generator experiments) even suggest that convergent energy can move backwards in time. What was previously regarded as impossible becomes possible....even possible to study retrocausal effects, where the effects arise before causes challenging the cause and effect model itself. A look at its equation,
E2 = m2c4 + p2c2
Albert Szent-Gyorgi extends this concept of syntropy suggesting the existence of an energy symmetric and complementary to the one described by the principle of entropy. He concluded that syntropy is the universal law of life, which is demonstrated constantly by the existence of livings systems.
"A major difference between amoebas and humans is the increase of complexity that requires the existence of a mechanism that is able to counteract the law of entropy. In other words, there must be a force that is able to counter the universal tendency of matter towards chaos and energy towards dissipation. Life always shows a decrease in entropy and an increase in complexity, in direct conflict with the law of entropy."
The chiropractor in me sees evidence of nature's remarkable ability to "syntropize" when I look at the fields of biomimicry, evolutionary biology, particle physics and neuroscience. As I watch my patients' own physiology and biology move from entropic states of dis-organization, dis-order and dis-ease to ones of syntropic organization, order and ease, I remain grateful and blessed to bare witness.
Time for Entropy's younger sister to take centre stage.......what do you think?
