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Every time energy is extrapolated from the environment and elaborated by society, a part of it is dispersed, lost and rejected by each successive state, until all this energy is transformed into scrap at the end of its use. (31:1) This means that there has been an increase of dispersed energy which is no longer usable, that is an increase of entropy. (31:2) The total amount of energy is always the same, while that part of energy no longer usable has increased. This concept is briefly expressed by physicists with a brief statement: "The quantity of energy in the universe is constant while total entropy is continuously increasing". (31:3) An example of this dispersed energy is what is commonly called pollution, which many consider as a by-product of the processes of productivity, while on the contrary it is the sum of all energy, which has been transformed and is no longer available. Therefore, solid and liquid waste is visible dispersed energy, gas waste is invisible. (31:4) The common man normally doesn't take in this simple concept because he is tied to the belief that human labor, added to natural resources, creates something of more value, and that is also true, but what is not grasped is that only evident resources of available energy can be transformed from a usable state to a dispersed one, and therefore only temporary use is the result. (31:5) Economists take into account only the unlimited and permanent process and are tenaciously clinging to the idea that human labor and machines only create things of greater value. However, everybody knows that even valuable things end up as some kind of waste and as dispersed energy. Therefore, there is no material progress in the sense of accumulation of a permanent reserve of utilized goods, because such accumulation is partly annihilated by the dispersion of energy. At this point let's analyze the consequences. (31:6) In the meantime, the old Newtonian concept which considers all phenomena as isolated expressions of matter or of fixed quantities, has been replaced by the idea that every thing is part of a dynamic cycle. (31:7) Consequently, things don't exist as isolated, fixed quantities. They are part of a continuous and dynamic process of evolution, which is none other than the manifestation of the principle of entropy. Mechanistic science has been replaced by entropic science based on the comprehension of dynamic flow and on the flotation concept. Let's now consider, in light of what has been described, the concept of productivity as the basis of the current economy. (31:8) Modern economic systems define productivity as speed per production unit. That is, importance is given to the rapidity of the execution of a determined job. For example, according to a study done some years ago, it was determined that the quantity of energy utilized to build a car was far superior to that which was strictly necessary. For what reason? To enable the finished product to leave the assembly line as fast as possible. A driver traveling with an almost empty tank has two possibilities: either to drive faster to reach the petrol station earlier, risking, though, to be left without fuel, or to drive slowly compensating a lesser speed with a longer distance. In the first case entropy would increase giving advantaging to speed; in the second case entropy would diminish to the detriment of speed. In the latter case, however, this driver would have more of a chance to reach the petrol station.
(31:9)
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