We have lots of machines that convert one form of energy to another. Batteries convert chemical energy to electrical energy. Motors convert electric energy to mechanical energy. Windmills and solar cells convert mechanical energy to electrical energy. We’ve got lots of energy-converting machines.
But there are also negentropy machines: devices that convert one form of negentropy to another. Plants convert the negentropy of sunlight into the negentropy of complex molecules. Animals eat the plants, converting the negentropy of those complex molecules into the negentropy of the animal’s bodies, their motions, and the calculations of their nervous systems.
Moreover, all members of the biosphere contribute to the negentropy of the overall biosphere. A tree dies, falls down, rots, and bacteria and termites harvest its remaining negentropy. Small carnivores eat the bacteria and termites. Larger carnivores eat the smaller carnivores, and so on up to the carnivores at the top of the food chain. And when those carnivores die, their carcasses feed a variety of other creatures. It’s an entire system harvesting and utilizing the negentropy of sunlight to increase its net negentropy.
We can see this increase in net negentropy in the increase in the number of genera in the global biosphere. Genera are groupings of closely related species; thus, an increase in genera implies an increase in the number of species on the planet. I have addressed this concept in a variety of essays; you can start tracing them backwards with Negentropy Accumulation.
In this essay, I intend to take the concept one step further by applying it to philosophy, specifically the matter of the purpose of life. I venture the statement that our purpose in life is to increase the net negentropy of the biosphere. We can do this in any of a vast number of ways. Simply reproducing creates more people, some of whom will increase the net negentropy of the biosphere.
However, reproduction can also decrease the net negentropy of the biosphere. Every human consumes huge amounts of negentropy by eating food, consuming energy, spreading garbage, destroying parts of the biosphere, or contributing to social discord that redirects human energies from building things to destroying things. Indeed, there are a great many such negentropy-destroying humans; they make the world a worse place.
But individual humans can, at their best, make gigantic contributions to the net negentropy of the biosphere. Jesus Christ, Mohammed, the Buddha, and Confucius all changed society in ways that made it happier and more productive of negentropy. The same can be said for any of the great scientists, mathematicians, artists, and leaders who pushed society towards higher levels of net negentropy.
Of course, there are also people who destroyed vast amounts of negentropy: Hitler, Pol Pot, Ghengis Khan, Tamerlane, Heliogabalus — well, the list of destroyers is very long. But, despite its many ups and downs, humanity has (so far) progressed to higher levels of negentropy.
We might argue that humanity achieved its own high levels of negentropy by destroying lots of the negentropy of the biosphere. Look at all the species we have rendered extinct. Look at the destruction we have wrought upon the earth. Humans are certainly better off today than in the past — but is the earth as a whole blessed with higher negentropy because of the efforts of humans? I don’t know.
Here are some strategies that, I suspect, increase the net negentropy of the biosphere, mostly by increasing the net negentropy of humanity:
Raising virtuous and productive children
Inspiring other people to virtue by living a virtuous life
Creating art that inspires people to live more virtuously
Inventing technology that eases the discomforts of human life
Discovering scientific truths that advance humanity’s technology and understanding of the universe
Generating economic benefits that make people’s lives better
Influencing governance in the direction of more productive relationships among people
Improving the health of the biosphere directly
Here is a list of things I have done that, I believe, have increased the net negentropy of the planet:
Taught many students
Published five books
Founded the Game Developers Conference
Tended 40 acres of forest, increasing its resilience against fire and its overall health
Published a lot of good ideas on this website
Helped many people
Designed and published a number of educational games, most notably Le Morte d'Arthur
I’m still working on it.