Excerpt from The Agents of Entropy

Photo by Harry Flashman @ snowheads

Scientifically speaking, entropy is a thermodynamic quantity representing the unavailability of a system’s thermal energy for conversion into mechanical work, often interpreted as the degree of disorder or randomness in the system. It’s also a fundamental law of thermodynamics: that any closed system evolves toward a state of maximum entropy.

I believe the forces that create entropy are constantly working on me. I’ll save you from my full thesis on the subject, which I’ll admit has its scientific flaws, but I’ve noticed that the thermodynamic system called ‘my life’ tends to a state of disorder and I constantly lose irretrievable energy trying to prevent it from falling into chaos.

I may not be alone in this. For example, have you noticed how a house becomes untidy all on its own? Objects don’t just leap out of the cupboards, something or someone, has used energy to move them and you must deploy an equal amount of energy to put them back. In the thermodynamic system known as ‘a chalet’ this is a constant process and the energy used is entropic, it cannot be reused for constructive purposes – it’s gone forever. I call the ‘somethings and someones’ the ‘Agents of Entropy’ and I’ve unwittingly been at war with them all my life.

Most of the Agents are human, although some appear in animal form, usually disguised as domestic pets. Others are mental constructs, like the Ski Demons, that cause disorder and a lot of heat in my head. Some are simply forces of nature (extreme weather) or the passage of time (ageing) that destroy the order we humans create.

Chalet guests are the most common Agents of Entropy in my universe, especially if they’ve had a drink. Some are worse than others: the feckless, the bad timekeepers, the accident-prone and those who always seem to get into a scrape.

Children start out as Agents and don’t need the influence of drink. But some get better at fighting for order once they’ve been through that teenage Agents of Anarchy stage.

Even well-disciplined adults can temporarily become Agents, especially when they go on holiday. I think it’s called letting your hair down or reliving your youth. Such Agents have a tendency to leave their stuff all over the chalet or randomise the molecules of a glass or plate by dropping it onto the floor. If I’m forced to enter their rooms mid-stay, I’ll often find towels, clothes and other, often unsavoury, items scattered all over the place. But I don’t wonder if we’ve had burglars; I just know that an Agent of Entropy has been at work.

Interestingly, when I show guests to their rooms, men will usually mark their territory by dumping their suitcases on their allocated bed then immediately return to the living area to drink beer.They never unpack, but take items out of their cases when they’re needed.Women, however usually disappear for at least an hour and unpack their bags, utilising the room’s storage furniture and setting up their toiletries in the bathroom – and heaven knows what else. Given this difference in gender behaviour, it’s interesting that the laws of thermodynamics are not sexist and by the end of their stay nearly all the rooms look like a burglar has been through them. Anyway, enough about sexual stereotypes – it’s got me into too much trouble before.

The most prolific Agents are the clumsy and the impatient. They work away at the fabric of the chalet.You could call it wear-and-tear, but there’s a never-ending list of maintenance issues I have to waste entropic energy rectifying. Showers, windows, door-handles and kitchen devices seemingly malfunction all on their own. Not a day goes by when I don’t have to replace or repair something and I’m staggered by the number of toilet seats I’ve had to fix/replace since the Chalet Project began – what on Earth are people doing in there?

I’ve devised a simple test to identify the Agents of Entropy, which I call the ‘French Door’ test. If a guest can consistently operate French door furniture without breaking it, they’re safe to leave on their own (more about the French Door Test later).

Some friends are worse Agents than others and whenever they come into my life an increase in disorder, if not chaos, is usually the result.They can lead me to change sides and engage in entropic activity myself. I sometimes think I become a double Agent of Entropy when I’ve done something stupid or self-destructive, or something that cannot be undone, or said something I didn’t mean that can’t be unsaid.

The worse Agent of Entropy is time. It has a slow but unstoppable effect on the randomness of the human body. I have to put an ever-increasing amount of energy into biological maintenance – by eating well and keeping fit enough to do battle with the other Agents.

The alpine weather is a powerful Agent too.Wind, snow and ice cause chaos and disorder, blocking roads and bursting pipes and avalanches are particularly good at randomising stuff that gets in their way. No matter how much we humans create order, a violent storm or biblical flood can mix everything up again.

I’m undecided if Mother Nature herself is an Agent of Entropy: ivy attacks our walls and tree roots undermine our foundations. Then again, living things are highly structured in a biological sense. She can organise oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and calcium atoms in some amazingly complicated ways. Maybe she has a different definition of order. Humans order things in straight lines and separate them into groups, but Mother Nature’s idea of ‘order’ is higgledy-piggledy and evenly mixed up. Anyway, that’s enough about gardening.

Entropy’s agents often like to work together which is why bad things happen in threes. Landie always breaks down when I’m trying to fix something else and then a ‘someone or something’ misplaces my phone. I’ve also noticed that the Agents wait until I’ve got a hangover before springing their coordinated attacks.

The Agents of Entropy work on a macro as well as a microscopic scale. Empires fall, civilisations collapse and humans, like the dinosaurs, will eventually become extinct.The Earth itself is on a march towards randomness and will eventually be consumed by the sun. If you view a life, a chalet, a planet or a solar system as a closed thermodynamic entity, then you know that the war for order cannot ultimately be won. Everything we build will be broken, grown over, eroded and, sooner rather than later, we too will be turned into dust.

I know that believing in supernatural entities masquerading as humans, makes me sound like David Icke (more about skiing with David Icke later) , but my conspiracy theory is based on science. I’ve simply extended the laws of thermodynamics to explain the chaos that goes on in my life. You may have suspected that forces beyond your control have been working against you all your life too – well now you can give them a collective name.

You can buy SWD II – The Agents of Entropy  – here.