>The word "entropy" is a measure of disorder, related to the second law of
>thermodynamics. Simply stated, this law tells that everything deteriorates,
>and it also applies to the transfer of information; some information is
>lost or distorted on the way.
To to put too fine a point on it, but "entropy" is not necessarily the same
as "deterioration." In fact, it is a measure of the amount of "disorder,"
or more technically the "degree of apparent randomness" in a system. While
this often looks like deterioration, it may not always be so.
Deterioration is, in fact, one manifestation of entropy, but so is the
progression of time (for one example). All allusions to "going to hell in
a handbasket" aside, it seems unlikely that most would be willing to
characterise the "march of history" as deterioration. But many do consider
it to be entropic, i.e. constantly increasing in its disorderliess.
I only make a point of this at all because "deterioation" casts entropy in
a very negative light, but, in truth, some things which come from an
increase in apparent randomness are in fact positive. (For instance, to
use a basic example of entropy from CHEM101, the boiling of water to create
steam . . . Without steam we would be without humidifiers, flu therapies,
or stamp collectors.)
In linguistics, we may see much of entropy as negative things (e.g.
"irregular" declensions and conjucations, cumbersome spelling changes, loss
of root meanings, etc...). But many other things are positive -- such as
the proliferation of synonyms to allow for more expressive, pleasant
communication.
Maybe this is too technical and I'm being overly picky, but I, for one,
would hesitate to put entropy and deterioration into one semantic domain
with interchnageable translations. ;-)
Nick---
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"There is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem."
(Booker T. Washington)
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