Anthropogenic entropy acceleration and its relationship to Shannon information in the context of socioeconomics

Abstract

The primary purpose of this paper is to familiarize the reader with the potential role that the relationship between entropy and information plays in socioeconomics. The secondary purpose is to explore the proposition that the volumetrically normalized terrestrial entropization rate is ~10 23 greater than that of the cosmic rate. This is done via a quantitative exploration of entropy generation at scales ranging from the nanoscopic to the cosmic. A working quantitative relationship between entropy and information in several systems is then explored in the context of "informational fitness." Exploitation by selfish dishonest systems of contingencies implicit in socioeconomics are then discussed in the context of the entropy-information relation to reveal how these systems persist. Finally, an argument is presented for embracing Kelvin's quantitative basis of science rather than abandoning the use of numbers because of misperceived semantics (McShea, 2013 "Unnecessary Complexity" Science 342: 1319-1320.

Entropy acceleration, Shannon information and socioeconomics: Quantitative examples

“…As recently demonstrated [1] humans entropicize their environment at a rate of 1.80 × 10 23 times greater than the average 'background' entropy generation rate of the universe. This is a direct result of the fact that 100% of our 500+ exajoule-per-year technological diet becomes thermal.…”

“…Throughout this treatment and the accompanying conference proceedings [1], several humanscale examples are presented to quantify entropy and information generation rates of common human activities. However, before examples can be given, a thorough quantitative exploration of entropy at scales both above and below the human scale is required.…”