The face of entropic technology

I'm not usually a very visually-oriented person. For example, in my dreams I can usually remember events and the identities of the people involved, but I only rarely remember what everything looks like. I even identify people I don't know by what they do, i.e. The Wizard, The Person Who's Trying to Kill Me, The Person Who Herds the Sheep, you get the idea. My husband did the layout for this blog, because I didn't want to mess around with what it looked like. Right now is an exception, though, because as I think about this fictional field of entropic technology I would like to create, I envision it having a very distinct appearance.

To begin with, the stickler for scientific accuracy in my head will not let me write this post without stating that all existing technology makes use of entropy, because anything that would violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics doesn't happen, including the things humans want to make happen with technology. This hypothetical field I am trying to create is based on a certain focus of awareness. For example, an engineer in the field of electronics has a very firm grasp of the applications of electromagnetism. It occupies a central place in their awareness, and other fields of science are more peripheral. In fact, I once took a physics course in which an electrical engineering student kept asking why an electrical engineering student needed to study certain topics (I could rant A LOT about engineering students who don't want to learn physics ... maybe some other time). For an entropic engineer, thermodynamics would occupy that central position in their awareness.

Now that that's out of the way, back to what it looks like. It's a field of technology, so its appearance will need to reflect a human being's desire to direct a course of events. That's one of the cool things about electronics - all those cables and wires and linear components, you can almost see the channeling of human will right in front of you. I definitely want entropic technology to have components like that.

On the other hand, it's a field of technology based on entropy. It's the channeling of human will by hedging probabilities in their favor. It's going to be a little messy-looking. So, what do you get when human will interfaces with entropy? You get a pair of earbuds after you've left them in your pocket for a while. In fact, one of these days I would love to model the thermodynamics of earbuds in a person's pocket. Maybe I should add that to my repertoire of creative projects. That is the aesthetic I would like to build on.

So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen, the face of entropic technology: knotted-up earbuds!