organized or low-entropy learning. These people make a conscientious
effort to file the new information properly by relating it to their existing
knowledge base and creating a solid information network in their minds. On
the other hand, people who throw the information into their minds as they
study, with no effort to secure it, may thinkthey are learning. They are
bound to discover otherwise when they need to locate the information, for
example, during a test. It is not easy to retrieve information from a database
that is, in a sense, in the gas phase. Students who have blackouts during
tests should reexamine their study habits.
A librarywith a good shelving and indexing system can be viewed as a low-
entropy library because of the high level of organization. Likewise, a library
with a poor shelving and indexing system can be viewed as a high-entropy
library because of the high level of disorganization. A library with no indexing
system is like no library, since a book is of no value if it cannot be found.
Consider two identical buildings, each containing one million books. In
the first building, the books are piledon top of each other, whereas in the
second building they are highly organized, shelved, and indexedfor easy
reference. There is no doubt about which building a student will prefer to go
to for checking out a certain book. Yet, some may argue from the first-law
point of view that these two buildings are equivalent since the mass and
knowledge content of the two buildings are identical, despite the high level
of disorganization (entropy) in the first building. This example illustrates
that any realistic comparisons should involve the second-law point of view.
Two textbooksthat seem to be identical because both cover basically the
same topics and present the same information may actually be verydifferent
depending on howthey cover the topics. After all, two seemingly identical
cars are not so identical if one goes only half as many miles as the other one
on the same amount of fuel. Likewise, two seemingly identical books are
not so identical if it takes twice as long to learn a topic from one of them as
it does from the other. Thus, comparisons made on the basis of the first law
only may be highly misleading.
Having a disorganized (high-entropy) armyis like having no army at all.
It is no coincidence that the command centers of any armed forces are
among the primary targets during a war. One army that consists of 10 divi-
sions is 10 times more powerful than 10 armies each consisting of a single
division. Likewise, one country that consists of 10 states is more powerful
than 10 countries, each consisting of a single state. The United Stateswould
not be such a powerful country if there were 50 independent countries in
its place instead of a single country with 50 states. The European Union
has the potential to be a new economic and political superpower. The old
cliché “divide and conquer” can be rephrased as “increase the entropy and
conquer.”
We know that mechanical friction is always accompanied by entropy
generation, and thus reduced performance. We can generalize this to daily
life:friction in the workplacewith fellow workers is bound to generate
entropy, and thus adversely affect performance (Fig. 7–27). It results in
reduced productivity.
We also know that unrestrained expansion(or explosion) and uncontrolled
electron exchange (chemical reactions) generate entropy and are highly irre-
versible. Likewise, unrestrained opening of the mouth to scatter angry words
Chapter 7 | 349FIGURE 7–27
As in mechanical systems, friction in
the workplace is bound to generate
entropy and reduce performance.
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