Entropy

Intriguing, Keith.

I have old components, gadgets and devices that I cannot bring myself to dump. Until last year I had even more similar stuff, then I began a search for something* and it turned into one of those “Why am I keeping this carp?” episodes. I took a lot of the carp to the bin, after attempting to sell some, reality kicked in with No Sale and the rest joined it at the local WEE centre. This led to the outdoors, when we began a major redesign of the garden. Two huge conifers and several bushes were felled, roots dug out by a local firm, turf laid, new fence, new bird boxes, old ones disposed of. Now I am looking at my rotting shed and hoping to get it replaced later in the year.

After all my medical problems and losing various bits of my deteriorating bod, I have to agree with you that we are as subject to entropy as anything else.

*’something‘ was two sticks of DDR2, an old mate with an XP PC inherited from Noah needed replacements. It did not work in his machine, joined first the Sale items, then the No Sale items and was WEE’d.

Entropy is best considered without reference to nostalgia, I think.

According to Shannon, information has an entropy value. i.e. in simple terms accumulating information (as compared to mere data) requires energy. Slightly confirming that, the brain is one of the larger consumers of energy in the human body.

[edit] it has since been shown that accumulating data also has an entropy value.