0. Introduction
What is the meaning of meaning? From the birth of the universe to the rise of human culture, this series explores how meaning evolves—through material, biological, mental, and cultural levels. Is meaning just personal opinion, or does it have an objective reality? And why does it matter so much for our health, happiness, and survival? Blending philosophy, psychology, big history, and information theory, this series uncovers how meaning emerges from the fabric of the cosmos, shaping our lives and our future.
1. Energy and Information
The Second Law of Thermodynamics drives all systems toward equilibrium, dissolving differences and increasing entropy, so ordered structures can persist only by expending energy to resist this drift. As with keeping a kitchen tidy, maintaining improbable, informationally rich configurations requires continuous input of free energy from outside the system. Boltzmann framed this entropic tendency statistically, while Shannon showed its link to information: improbable states convey more information, but also demand more energy to sustain. All enduring entities are open systems, defined by and exchanging energy and information with their environments. Their persistence depends on successfully maintaining structural and informational distinctions against the homogenizing pull of entropy, making the capture and use of free energy the fundamental requirement for existence itself.
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