SYNTROPY

Book excerpt: Most of us are familiar with the concept of entropy, the dissipative process that indicates the degree of disorder or uncertainty in a closed physical system. Entropy is unidirectional and always proceeds forward in time, but it fails to account for many scientific paradoxes, such as life itself. Less well known is its complementary principle: syntropy, the subject of this book. Syntropy produces a continuous increase in complexity through the action of attractors that emanate from the future, and provides systems with their purpose and design. Rather than generating disorder via increasing differentiation, syntropy draws individuals and systems together by their common characteristics and goals. In a way, syntropy can be regarded as the life force that emanates from the unifying action of love.