Episode 6.35: We extract our kind of significant order in the form of life from the order available.

We talk about “using” energy but nobody can “use” energy. What we mean is that we degrade usable energy into less usable forms of energy. That increases the disorder in the universe which we measure using the physical concept of entropy. Our bodies are in effect machines designed to extract and create significant order, order that is which is significant for at least us if not the Vogons, from the available order around us in the universe. How we do that is one of the great mysteries of life. That we do it is undeniable. And so in extracting by separation significant order from the universe albeit at the expense of a net increase in the disorder of the universe, we create significant meaning from inside a system absolutely indifferent to what we are doing. Never forget the Vogons.