Entropy

The term for the opposite of information.

It is a concept that was discovered fairly recently (the 19th century) by physicists. It is a magnitude that appeared naturally in the equations of thermodynamics; when physicists interpreted its meaning, they realized that it expresses the amount of information in a dynamical system, which they more and more realize everyday our physical world happens to be.

Basic theorems about such dynamical systems assert that in a closed system, entropy globally increases with time; that is, information is being lost, and the system evolves toward a state more and more indistinguishable, less specific, more probable.


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