[gbtimmon]

This is more of a curiosity of mine than something i need for any class.
I wondering if there has been any works on what kind effects the ever increasing entropy of or universe might have on our existance?
The chem texts i have read do not make much mention of what sort of physical aspects higher entropy's effect, only how to determine what entropy is, and I am curious as to if there is any physical significance of the difference of entropy in one system versus another, and if any broad conclusion can be made from the endless "diversifying" of energy?

[Alpha-Omega]

If you do a search on yahoo you will find a huge number of hits:


http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=effects+of+entropy+on+our+existence&fr=yfp-t-501&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8


http://www.rationality.net/entropy.htm

http://www.entropysimple.com/content.htm

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/7547/entropy.html

http://www.entropysite.com/teaching_entropy.html

[Arkcon]

There's a very famous story by Issac Asimov on the subject.  Basically, humans create a supercomputer to solve all their technical problems, it's so advanced, no one person really understands how it works. As a goof, some programmers ask it, "What happens when the universal entropy consumes the universe?"  The computer's output, "Insufficient data."  Human technology advances, spreads across the universe, and the computer advances too, becoming more complicated and less understandable, with the same reply to the same question, "Insufficient data."  Humanity advances to a disembodied consciousness, spread out across the universe, as more and more stars exhaust their fuel, the computer is so huge it must be stored in a higher dimension, and is merged with the human race's consciousness.  The same question is asked, as a last gasp, and the computer replies, "Insufficient data for meaningful answer." 

Left alone, observing a cold, dead universe, the computer churns though it's calculations, and solves the problem.  But there is no one left to hear the answer.  Over time scales that are meaningless to lesser minds, it gathers the residual subatomic particles, to a massive explosion --

Let there be light.

[Yggdrasil]

To me, the importance of entropy is that it sets "the arrow of time."  Most of the physical laws that govern our universe are reversible in time; that is, they work just as well if you are going forward in time or backwards.  The second law of thermodynamics, however, tells you which way is the future and which way is the past because entropy will be decreasing as one moves forward in time and increasing as one moves backward in time.