Hi All, I read that "Open Space works because self-organization works." But I remember from physics class that disorder (entropy) in the Universe is always increasing, so when the order of something increases (such as during OS), the order of something else must decrease.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy>: "The second law of thermodynamics states that in general the total entropy of any system (the disorder, randomness, or our lack of information about it) will not decrease other than by increasing the entropy of some other system." *So when participants organize themselves during Open Space does something else become disorganized?* Or is it that all the disorder created (by consuming the muffins, coffee, fuel, paper, electricity, etc) always outweighed by the order created by the self-organization? For what it's worth, below is an interesting thread I found from the list archives from a few years ago that mentions entropy... Lucas Cioffi Charlottesville, VA ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: John Watkins <[email protected]> List-Post: [email protected] Date: Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 12:25 AM Subject: Re: [OSList] Designing an OS way To: Artur Silva <[email protected]>, World wide Open Space Technology email list <[email protected]> Cc: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Artur, The term "open systems" comes from thermodynamics, especially from Prigogine and Stengers, who also refer to them as "dissipative" systems. It does not mean open to change; it means open in the sense of importing "energy" from outside itself and excreting "energy" back into the surrounding system. Such systems are most often self-organizing and self-recreating (autopoiesis). They "sort" energy into that which will help them recreate themselves and that which will not, and they dissipate the rest, creating, paradoxically, internally order and externally more entropy. Bureaucracies are actually great examples of open systems in this regard. John
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