As noted by Luigi Fantappiè, syntropy is “the tendency towards energy concentration, order, organization and life” (www.sintropia.it ). Inversely to “entropy,” syntropy is a result of retro-causality leading to persistent organization.
The concept and phrase “negative entropy” was introduced by Erwin Schrödinger in his 1944 popular-science book What is Life?[1] Later, Léon Brillouin shortened the phrase to negentropy.[2][3] In 1974, Albert Szent-Györgyi proposed replacing the term negentropy with syntropy. That term may have originated in the 1940s with the Italian mathematician Luigi Fantappiè, who tried to construct a unified theory of biology and physics. Buckminster Fuller tried to popularize this usage, but negentropy remains common.
In a note to What is Life? Schrödinger explained his use of this phrase.
“ | […] if I had been catering for them [physicists] alone I should have let the discussion turn on free energy instead. It is the more familiar notion in this context. But this highly technical term seemed linguistically too near to energy for making the average reader alive to the contrast between the two things. | ” |
The reduction of entropy
In 1964, James Lovelock was among a group of scientists who were requested by NASA to make a theoretical life detection system to look for life on Mars during the upcoming space mission. When thinking about this problem, Lovelock wondered “how can we be sure that Martian life, if any, will reveal itself to tests based on Earth’s lifestyle?”[8] To Lovelock, the basic question was “What is life, and how should it be recognized?” When speaking about this issue with some of his colleagues at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he was asked what he would do to look for life on Mars. To this, Lovelock replied “I’d look for an entropy reduction, since this must be a general characteristic of life.”[8]
Living Nature is the Fortress against entropy
In a very literal sense, the living nature is the only fortress against entropy increase. Vegetation collects and concentrates solar energy to fuel and food, to negative entropy,
The plant world slows down the entropy propagation in the inorganic world by stopping the eroding forces of water and wind.
Mountain forest prevents humus from being carried by rivers into the sea, mountains from being mined and the seabed from becoming flatter. Living nature stops this irreversible process,