Entropy

Heat does funny things to people.

In the summer months of Los Angeles, this effect is especially apparent. The energy from a sweltering July sun charges the air in such a way that disrupts the normal electrical firings in our brains, making everyone just a little more edgy, a little less controlled than usual. In much the same way it turns water to steam, our thoughts become less orderly and more chaotic as the days get longer and hotter. We do things that we never thought in a million years we would do.

But the really interesting thing about heat is that it is never the same. The light and energy that the sun gives our planet today is different from the heat we’ve felt yesterday and what we will feel tomorrow. And it isn’t just in the sunlight, it’s in everything, our hands, our hot dogs, our coffee, our breath. It is a one-way system, and as fast as the sun can produce it, it will escape into the atmosphere, the universe, never to be recaptured. This is called the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

The energy put into a system can never be fully recycled; some part of it will always be lost.

This seems inefficient. It’s not. In fact, I believe it’s terribly important. It is the stuff of free will. The sunlight today is unique, infused with possibility. That energy is a gift, the present in every sense of the word. How we use our heat, today, is what shapes our destinies, and is what creates the explosion that happens when two charged particles collide. And we have to act fast because, when it comes down to it, we will all eventually cool off.