The Art of Energetics
By B. Bisaillon
“In a non-equilibrium steady state, which is postulated, the solar energy
would not just flow to the earth and radiate away; it is thermodynamically inevitable that it must rearrange matter into symmetry, away
from probability, against entropy, lifting it, so to speak, into a constantly
changing condition of rearrangement and molecular ornamentation.
In such a system, the outcome is a chancy kind of order, always on the
verge of descending into chaos, held taut against probability by the
unremitting, constant surge of energy from the sun. If there were to be
sounds to represent this process, they would have the arrangement of
the Brandenburg Concertos for my ear…”
—Lewis Thomas, Lives of a Cell, “The Music of This Sphere”
i
.
The universe is, because is has to be. There can’t be nothing—it’s a contradiction of terms!
This must settle for the first proposition, the foundation, on which I will build. The universe is. The universe created its fundamental forces. These forces created elementary particles. These particles created clumps of matter. These clumps of matter created
galaxies. These galaxies created stars. These stars created more complex matter—died
for more complex matter, so it goes—and in turn created planets. These planets met
with stars and created systems. These systems created life. Life created us. We create.
We
have
created
machines
that
create.
We
have
created
machines that create machines that create. But better yet we have created art. Art continues the chain of creation in the most extravagant way.
Art is the child of the artist, and I mean this far beyond endearment. For the child is
only of the parent, and develops far from. My own work grows, and sometimes I hardly recognize it. Other times I recognize more of myself within it than I imagined could
ever manifest. I have learned more about myself from the growth of my children than
in purposeful introspection. And if I can learn so much from my own children, what will
others learn? Art creates ideas, and these ideas bring people to create art. So it goes.
Lewis Thomas, inspired by the work of Harold J. Morowitz, speaks of energy essentially arranging itself into order, into complex systems, into life. And we see ourselves, believing ourselves to be of the highest order of life, arranging nature still, away from chance and mutation,
into structured societies powered by channels of energy. We believe ourselves to be arranging
energy for our own benefit, but we have only ever been vessels for energy. We are creations
of energy. Our own creations are only more complex and more orderly structures of energy.