Raphael wrote:
What would our barrier be, our event horizon?
MonteQ what say you?
Our event horizon is called an entropy watershed. In the course of human history, critical watersheds are reached when all of the accumulated increases in entropy result in a qualitative change in the energy source of the environment itself.
A shift to a new energy environment occurs with the advent of new technologies. 2nd law tells us that each shift is more harsh and exacting in terms of available energy. The demand to hold entropy at bay is ever increasing, while the amount of available energy is always decreasing.
Since there is not enough time to do more work each day, we must come up with labor-saving or time-saving technologies just to maintain the status quo.
If you think that just because machines are doing our work for us that
less work is being done, then you don't yet have a grasp of 2nd law.
I think climate change is going to be the next entropy watershed.