Entropy

1. Thermodynamics.
   1. (in statistical mechanics) a measure of the randomness of the microscopic constituents of a thermodynamic system. Symbol: S.
   2. (on a macroscopic scale) a function of thermodynamic variables, as temperature, pressure, or composition, that is a measure of the energy that is not available for work during a thermodynamic process. A closed system evolves toward a state of maximum entropy.
2. (in data transmission and information theory) a measure of the loss of information in a transmitted signal or message.
3. (in cosmology) a hypothetical tendency for the universe to attain a state of maximum homogeneity in which all matter is at a uniform temperature (heat death)

4. Doctrine of inevitable social decline and degeneration.

(Entropy. (n.d.). Retrieved August 14, 2015, from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/entropy )

Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution once was considered shocking. To suggest that humankind descended from apes was considered blasphemous. Oddly we now have arrived at a state of entropy occupied at one extreme by proponents of “unnatural selection” who argue in favor of artificial, planned, engineered evolution, thereby rendering criticisms of Darwin quaint; and on the other extreme by neo-fundamentalist religious zealots who would like to reanimate the Darwin debate and realists who have accepted the malaise of a lingering entropy as the inescapable path forward. In Future Humans: Four Ways We May or May Not Evolve, The National Geographic has provided a blueprint for the future with four paths to choose from: Where do we go from here?

(Reference: FUTURE HUMANS: Four Ways We May, or May Not, Evolve. (2009, November 24). Retrieved April 1, 2015, from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/11/091124-origin-of-species-150-darwin-human-evolution.html.)