Ludwig’s Theory of Information Growth

Why Information Grows gadgets every day. Ludwig’s theory, however, predicted that order should not grow but disappear. It explained why heat flows from hot to cold, why swirls of milk disappear in coffee, and why whispers vanish in the wind. Ludwig showed that the microstructures of the universe gnaw away order, making it ephemeral. But he understood that this was not the full story and that he was missing the mechanisms that helped information transcend. The growth of order troubled Ludwig. It disturbed him in a way that only a scientist can understand. He knew that something was missing from his theory, but he was unable to identify what that was. At the dusk of life, Ludwig became tired of battling both people and nature. Using a rope, he decided to take matter into his own hands. What was left was a shell of atoms that began a steady but certain decay, just as his theory predicted.

A faux-scientific passage describes Ludwig’s theory of entropy and the gradual decay of order. The punchline darkly implies that Ludwig hanged himself, turning “using a rope” and “take matter into his own hands” into a pun about his body decaying exactly as his theory predicted.

• @rzeczyzabawne / 1973 2022-09-22