Some people use drugs. Others take ecstasy, LSD or magic mushrooms. Some drink alcohol. A certain remote tribe in Africa take 'Imphepho' to induce a trance like state. The Sanema people in present day Venezuela take a powerful hallucinogenic drug called 'Sakona' taken from the dried sap of the Virola tree - it brings forth visions. The world appears anew. The forest comes alive. The spirits creep out of their dwelling places.
I don't need any of this to get a high. I can just use my imagination.
Yesterday; in one of those trance like states that often overtake me - I suddenly realised, in a moment of sublime clarity, that the whole of this world: the tides, the winds, the weather, the snow, the rain, the waves crashing down on the shore - the clouds, the plants, the whole of life in fact - everything - the volcanoes, earthquakes, the movement of the continents - everything - me, you, the lamp hanging over this screen, the radiator keeping my room warm, the thin life-line of electrons in the form of electricity that keeps my laptop alive nay powers it, the energy required to boil me a cup of water for my coffee - the energy I consume to keep me alive - from the bread and cheese and chocolates I eat, to the green olives I enjoy - everything - the whole of this - is powered by one thing and one thing only.
The sun.
Or rather; to be more precise in thermodynamic terms - the energy or entropic gradient between the sun and the earth. Let me explain. Everything you see around you is powered and made possible by the simple fact that the sun is many magnitudes more energetic then the earth. The sun has a lot of energy - the earth little - or to put it in another way - the sun has low entropy or low disorder and entropy is a measure of the amount of disorder in a system. The 2nd Law of thermodynamics states that on a whole, entropy or disorder increases. The sun is steadily becoming more disordered by loosing its energy in the form of heat and light. This heat travels to the earth and powers the weather. The light on the other hand is soaked up by plants during photosynthesis and used to make sugars. Plants convert sunlight energy into chemical bond energy and this is stored in sugars. We eat plants or we eat animals, but either way we are using the sunlight energy stored in the bonds in sugar molecules to power ourselves.
I am typing this using the energy that was initially present in sun beams! What a poetic thought! My thoughts, my emotions, my feelings - the firing of my neurons, the twitching of my muscles, the heat of my body - the words on this page - all this and more is powered by the sun!
What is life?
How is life possible if the 2nd Law of thermodynamics states that the universe is tending towards a more disordered state? Surely, life is ordered? It is, but the increase in order that life engenders is exceeded by the disorder that results from life processes - i.e. loss of bodily heat, respiration, decomposition - ultimately, the 2nd Law still stands. Life is a small pocket of order in a universal system that tends towards disorder. I am a pocket of order. You are a pocket of order. When you die, you will become disordered - your body will become one with the environment - your temperature, PH, salinity, composition will assume that of the earth - eventually. All the innumerable products of vitality resume, after death, the original form from which they sprung. And thus death - the complete dissolution of an existing generation - becomes a source of life for a new one.
But for now, for this brief existence - during this ephemeral moment of life - I am fighting against the 2nd Law (not defying it).
I don't need any of this to get a high. I can just use my imagination.
Yesterday; in one of those trance like states that often overtake me - I suddenly realised, in a moment of sublime clarity, that the whole of this world: the tides, the winds, the weather, the snow, the rain, the waves crashing down on the shore - the clouds, the plants, the whole of life in fact - everything - the volcanoes, earthquakes, the movement of the continents - everything - me, you, the lamp hanging over this screen, the radiator keeping my room warm, the thin life-line of electrons in the form of electricity that keeps my laptop alive nay powers it, the energy required to boil me a cup of water for my coffee - the energy I consume to keep me alive - from the bread and cheese and chocolates I eat, to the green olives I enjoy - everything - the whole of this - is powered by one thing and one thing only.
The sun.
Or rather; to be more precise in thermodynamic terms - the energy or entropic gradient between the sun and the earth. Let me explain. Everything you see around you is powered and made possible by the simple fact that the sun is many magnitudes more energetic then the earth. The sun has a lot of energy - the earth little - or to put it in another way - the sun has low entropy or low disorder and entropy is a measure of the amount of disorder in a system. The 2nd Law of thermodynamics states that on a whole, entropy or disorder increases. The sun is steadily becoming more disordered by loosing its energy in the form of heat and light. This heat travels to the earth and powers the weather. The light on the other hand is soaked up by plants during photosynthesis and used to make sugars. Plants convert sunlight energy into chemical bond energy and this is stored in sugars. We eat plants or we eat animals, but either way we are using the sunlight energy stored in the bonds in sugar molecules to power ourselves.
I am typing this using the energy that was initially present in sun beams! What a poetic thought! My thoughts, my emotions, my feelings - the firing of my neurons, the twitching of my muscles, the heat of my body - the words on this page - all this and more is powered by the sun!
What is life?
How is life possible if the 2nd Law of thermodynamics states that the universe is tending towards a more disordered state? Surely, life is ordered? It is, but the increase in order that life engenders is exceeded by the disorder that results from life processes - i.e. loss of bodily heat, respiration, decomposition - ultimately, the 2nd Law still stands. Life is a small pocket of order in a universal system that tends towards disorder. I am a pocket of order. You are a pocket of order. When you die, you will become disordered - your body will become one with the environment - your temperature, PH, salinity, composition will assume that of the earth - eventually. All the innumerable products of vitality resume, after death, the original form from which they sprung. And thus death - the complete dissolution of an existing generation - becomes a source of life for a new one.
But for now, for this brief existence - during this ephemeral moment of life - I am fighting against the 2nd Law (not defying it).
This world is full of 'life things'. And these life things were once simple single-celled molecules; but now, look around you - they have morphed into the rich and complex tapestry of flora and fauna you see around today. Isn't that amazing?! I spend much time thinking about the sheer otherworldliness of life. The sheer amazingness of trees. The sheer improbability of flowers and bees. The miracle of my being here, alive, right now. Most of us spend our lives staring at the pavement. If only we just raised up our heads and looked around a little. I mean it. Look around you. Forget for a moment your jobs, children, troubles, wants, needs, vexations, ills and ails - just stop! Pause. Look around and ask yourselves: what is all this?
Fly ten miles up and view the whole of creation (past, present and future) in one blink of an eye. In one image. In one viewing.
Who needs drugs when you've got your imagination.
