Negentropy (nonfiction): Difference between revisions
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'''Negentropy''' has different meanings in theoretical biology and [[Information theory (nonfiction)|information theory]]. | '''Negentropy''' has different meanings in theoretical biology and [[Information theory (nonfiction)|information theory]]. | ||
In a biological context, the negentropy (also negative entropy, syntropy, extropy, ectropy or entaxy) of a living system is the entropy that it exports to keep its own entropy low; it lies at the intersection of entropy and life. The concept and phrase "negative entropy" was introduced by Erwin Schrödinger in his 1944 popular-science book What is Life? | In a biological context, the negentropy (also negative entropy, syntropy, extropy, ectropy or entaxy) of a living system is the entropy that it exports to keep its own entropy low; it lies at the intersection of entropy and life. The concept and phrase "negative entropy" was introduced by Erwin Schrödinger in his 1944 popular-science book ''What is Life?'' | ||
Later, [[Léon Brillouin (nonfiction)|Léon Brillouin]] shortened the phrase to negentropy, to express it in a more "positive" way: a living system imports negentropy and stores it. | Later, [[Léon Brillouin (nonfiction)|Léon Brillouin]] shortened the phrase to negentropy, to express it in a more "positive" way: a living system imports negentropy and stores it. | ||
Revision as of 19:30, 10 September 2016
Negentropy has different meanings in theoretical biology and information theory.
In a biological context, the negentropy (also negative entropy, syntropy, extropy, ectropy or entaxy) of a living system is the entropy that it exports to keep its own entropy low; it lies at the intersection of entropy and life. The concept and phrase "negative entropy" was introduced by Erwin Schrödinger in his 1944 popular-science book What is Life?
Later, Léon Brillouin shortened the phrase to negentropy, to express it in a more "positive" way: a living system imports negentropy and stores it.
In 1974, Albert Szent-Györgyi proposed replacing the term negentropy with syntropy. That term may have originated in the 1940s with the Italian mathematician Luigi Fantappiè, who tried to construct a unified theory of biology and physics. Buckminster Fuller tried to popularize this usage, but negentropy remains common.
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External links:
- Negentropy @ Wikipedia