Entropy and Empire

[The2ndWheel]

http://canada.theoildrum.com/node/2381

In his recent book The Upside of Down, a review of which can be found here, Thomas Homer-Dixon interpreted the development of the Roman Empire in terms of thermodynamics. The success of the empire depended on its ability to extract energy surpluses, in the form of food, from the imperial territories and concentrate them at the centre, where they enabled the development of a tremendous degree of organizational complexity. Without a large, and growing, hinterland to collect surpluses from, complexity on such as scale would not have been possible to establish and maintain.

In thermodynamic terms, a highly uneven distribution of energy is an ordered state, and therefore a low entropy condition. Without a continual input of energy from outside the system, entropy within the system would increase, meaning that the relative concentrations would tend to equalize over time. Moreover, if the concentration eventually equalized, it would do so at a very low level. For instance, an even distribution of energy across the universe, which would theoretically occur eventually if the universe were to expand forever, would be called heat death – ironic, as it would be scarcely above absolute zero.

In order to generate a low entropy (ordered) state from a higher entropy (less ordered) state, energy external to the system is needed to drive the concentration of energy within the system uphill. However, entropy in the larger system must increase, in accordance with the laws of thermodynamics. If energy is to be concentrated at the centre, it must come at the price of a lower energy level in the periphery, and the energy loss in the periphery must be greater than the gain at the centre.

[Odin2005]

1. Lame theory.

Too much over-generalization, empires rarely die because of singular abstract reasons like "Entropy" or "Decadence". the Western Roman Empire disintegrated for a variety of reasons, ranging from civil wars ruining the economic base to depopulation cause by epidemics to military advances by the Germanic peoples such as greater and more effective use of heavy cavalry (the forerunners of knights).