Origin Story: A Big History of Everything

by David Christian

an important phenomenon noted by the astrophysicist Eric Chaisson: roughly speaking, more complex phenomena need more dense flows of energy, more energy per gram per second. He estimates, for example, that the density of energy flowing through modern human society is about one million times greater than the density of energy flowing through the sun, while energy flowing through most living organisms lies somewhere between these extremes. It’s as if entropy demands more energy from an entity if it tries to get more complex; more complex things have to find and manage larger and more elaborate flows of free energy. No wonder it’s harder to make and maintain more complex things, and no wonder they usually break down faster than simpler things. This is an idea that runs right through the modern origin story and has a lot to tell us about modern human societies.