by Noah Clawson

Now, let’s look at the first half of our philosophy: what do we mean by entropic? The word comes from classical thermodynamics—the branch of physics that studies heat, energy, and work. Put simply, entropy is a measure of disorder and randomness. In everyday terms, it measures how energy and matter scatter and dissipate until they are no longer available for us to use. (Think of how a warm cup of coffee cools down until it matches the room, losing its concentrated energy to the air around it).

To make this more concrete, think about how a train engine works. A diesel engine takes concentrated, orderly fuel (which physicists call “low-entropy” because it packs a massive amount of energy into a small space) and puts it to work. We can imagine the fuel’s hydrocarbon chains as millions of tightly packed, coiled springs. When the engine subjects these chains to intense pressure, they crack. The microscopic “springs” break free and fly violently in every direction—which we experience as an explosion of heat. That heat explosion expands inside a chamber, pushing a piston. Through this mechanical chain reaction, a series of controlled explosions becomes the motion that pulls a heavy train down the tracks.

Entropy blends the ideas of chaos and dissipation. On a macro-scale, the universe began as a dense singularity and is constantly expanding toward a homogenized nothingness. We see an example of the micro-scale play out in our train scenario: the diesel engine shatters its highly organized, compact fuel. At the chemical level, neat chains of hydrocarbons are broken into chaotic little gas particles. At the energy level, a concentrated stash of chemical power is smashed outward into heat, noise, and motion. Because the universe always favors spreading things out over keeping them neat, you can never gather all that scattered heat back up to run the engine again. This unstoppable march from concentrated order to scattered chaos is what scientists call entropy.

For us to utilize energy, we must exploit a dynamic in which energy flows from a concentrated state to a dispersed state—a difference in levels. If we imagine a scenario in which the outside environment of a train was just as hot as the conditions inside the engine, the engine could not work. The hot air trying to push out would be balanced by the hot air pushing in, and the piston wouldn’t move. To make this more concrete, let’s consider energy expressed through air and water. If the earth’s atmosphere had a completely uniform pressure, there could be no wind to spin a wind turbine; we need a high-pressure zone and a low-pressure zone for air to flow. Likewise, if all water sat in a flat, endless ocean, there could be no hydroelectric dams; we need a difference between high elevation and low elevation for water to rush downward and turn a turbine.

What is Exergy?

We notice that in order for energy to perform work, there must be a gradient in the system—a gap between a concentrated state and a dispersed state. As this gradient becomes more extreme, the capacity for the system to perform work increases. Exergy is simply the measure of that capacity. A river flowing from a high mountaintop down to the ocean has high exergy; once that same water settles into a flat, level ocean, its exergy drops to zero. In classical physics, exergy is treated as a blind, non-conscious thermodynamic force. But in human society, we must note a vital distinction: the concept of “work” is defined by human agency and desires. Throughout history, human beings have constantly striven to harness, direct, and share the power of nature.

Exergy of Freedom

In Entropic Marxism (EM), exergy is the bridge that connects the science of thermodynamics with sociology. First, we conceptualize human beings as living nodes in a web of energy and matter. How we choose to engage with and direct that energy directly shapes our quality of life. Second, we define human freedom as exergy. In this context, exergy isn’t just grueling, burdensome labor; it is the practical ability to act in one’s own best interest. To experience this kind of freedom, we recognize three vital components:

1. Education: You cannot choose a path if you do not know your options or understand the lay of the land.
2. Motivation and Vitality: To effectively execute a choice, you must have the physical health, rest, curiosity, and energy to do so (rather than being exhausted by 80-hour workweeks).
3. Social Capital: You cannot improve your society alone; you need real connections, trust, and working relationships with the people in your community.

In the EM philosophy, an abstract, legalistic guarantee of freedom is simply not enough. For us, freedom isn’t just words on a parchment—it is something embedded in the physical reality of our daily lives. Think about it: What use is abstract freedom if you don’t have the education or knowledge to know your options? What use is abstract freedom if you have to work 80 hours a week just to survive, leaving you too exhausted to rest, develop hobbies, or participate in community life? And what use is abstract freedom if you are completely isolated from your neighbors? Without exergy, abstract freedom is just a cruel illusion.

We believe that integrating Marxism with thermodynamics removes us from tribal politics and grounds us in a shared physical reality. At the same time, such an integration fills us with trepidation. Just as we are doing now, Marx wrote his philosophy with humanity’s best interest in mind. Like us, Marx took it as a point of pride that his social philosophy was scientific. Tragically, however, his “scientific philosophy” metastasized into the genocidal regimes of Stalin, Pol Pot, and Mao. Will our “scientific” approach also end in genocide? We cannot further develop our philosophy until we address this question head-on!