StatMech I: Entropy
Jun. 24th, 2012 12:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
northern_magicAn Oath of a consciousness that knows a little about entropy and reveres life
With the passing of each second, I acknowledge that the cost of life and the growth of its complexity is
energy; and a tax is paid in kind.
I vow, as a conscious wilful being with the power to manipulate the states of the things around me:
to encourage growth and ease pain
to preserve what grows and lives well in its own way
to change no object or creature unless its growth and life, or that of the system of which it is part, are
threatened
For while nothing I do can increase the total useful energy of the universe, I acknowledge that from the
increase in universal entropy, I can celebrate the diversity of life and its workings. It is by knowing and
having many possible mannerisms available to me that I choose these principles.
All these principles I swear to uphold to the exclusion of destructiveness and death
when it is right to do so
unto the end of the universe.
This is based around Diane Duane's “Wizard's Oath”, from her young adult fantasy series Young
Wizards. These wizards are granted magical power to fight 'entropy' and slow down the heat-death of
their universe.
Comments: "This was very interesting. At first I thought it was misguided, because in encouraging growth and focusing on living things you are at odds with the 'natural' flow of entropy (i.e. neglecting the impact that sustaining life -- lowering its own entropy -- has on increasing the entropy everywhere else). But it cuts to the heart of the matter in a side-long way that is insightful, so 10/10."
With the passing of each second, I acknowledge that the cost of life and the growth of its complexity is
energy; and a tax is paid in kind.
I vow, as a conscious wilful being with the power to manipulate the states of the things around me:
to encourage growth and ease pain
to preserve what grows and lives well in its own way
to change no object or creature unless its growth and life, or that of the system of which it is part, are
threatened
For while nothing I do can increase the total useful energy of the universe, I acknowledge that from the
increase in universal entropy, I can celebrate the diversity of life and its workings. It is by knowing and
having many possible mannerisms available to me that I choose these principles.
All these principles I swear to uphold to the exclusion of destructiveness and death
when it is right to do so
unto the end of the universe.
This is based around Diane Duane's “Wizard's Oath”, from her young adult fantasy series Young
Wizards. These wizards are granted magical power to fight 'entropy' and slow down the heat-death of
their universe.
Comments: "This was very interesting. At first I thought it was misguided, because in encouraging growth and focusing on living things you are at odds with the 'natural' flow of entropy (i.e. neglecting the impact that sustaining life -- lowering its own entropy -- has on increasing the entropy everywhere else). But it cuts to the heart of the matter in a side-long way that is insightful, so 10/10."
