Cosmic Origins of Extropy
Technology is the visible extension of an archaic force which runs up in time while the universe runs down.
Technology is the latest chapter in a continuous story that builds up order, structure, freedom, possibilities and good against the inescapable black drain of entropy. While the universe cools and dies, the spreading differential of life (and technology) warms up a greater portion of cosmic coldness.
This rising flow, called extropy, enlivens our current technology on earth but was first birthed in the unlikely genesis of the universe 12 billion years ago. In that way all machines trace their origins to the big bang; Technology is a cosmic force.
As primeval matter swirled into galaxies, extropy rose as stuff gathered into life and finally unleashed its full power as self-consciousness mindfulness. Extropy is now unfolding the technium - the autonomous planetary technological system created by our minds. It is this awakening sphere of technology which is so altering our planet, shaping our history, and disturbing the universe.
Everything we find interesting and good in the cosmos - living organisms, civilization, communities, intelligence, evolution itself - has the strong hand of entropy running through it. While the cosmic background slips away to its eternal rest, the energy coursing through these systems flings forward an unbroken sequence of ever unlikely existences. By the normal calculus of entropy, the appearance of both kangaroos and 747s should be impossible. And yet their unlikely existences, and the surprising appearance of any extropic organization that stands upright in the stream of heat death, serves as a platform for yet newer ways to continue the story of unlikely possibilities.
Our global technium is the current stage of this story. It is the mythic midpoint between a cascade of extropic organization reaching back to the genesis of the universe, and forward to an unseen "next'.
If we follow the trajectory of this very long continuum, it suggests not only a future, but a destiny as well. It is a course in which we humans will play a role but we are still determining our exact role. At every stage in this long continuum, choices are expanded and freedom to be is enlarged.
Posted on November 12, 2004 at 5:50 AM
I’ve only just begun reading over your essays, very interesting. I was pointed here by Bob Lefsetz.
I highly recommend the book “Lila” by Pirsig (yes the same one who wrote “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”). This is the only serious book I’ve read that constructively arrives at a conclusion which I seem to be seeing throughout your essays so far - that is how evolution works in a universe governed by the laws of thermodynamics (where entropy should prevail?)
david
Posted by david kuller on February 5, 2008 at 8:28 AM