reaction/entropy
You know the story.
You're anticipating an event, an e-mail, a phone call. Recent history suggests strongly that this will happen soon. Probably tomorrow. Every day you look for it, but every day you are disappointed. You start to realize that the pattern you thought you saw was illusory, that the next step, once considered inevitable, will never arrive. You still check every day, but more out of habit than anything else. Gradually it fades from your mind, and life goes on.
Then it happens. Materially it is just what you were once expecting. But the context is different - it is no longer the natural progression of past events but a sudden
reversal of the norm. Conceived as a prediction, it only materializes once it becomes unpredictable. This robs the event of all its previous significance, leaving you wondering. What does it mean, happening
now and not
then?Perhaps it is a consequence of the Second Law: Confusion, a form of entropy, is fated to increase.
Posted by Arcane Gazebo at February 6, 2003 9:38 PM | Tags: