# Entropy is Scary **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 1, 2024, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entropy-is-scary/996987 "2024-02-01T20:16:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cjackson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a3d4f5/32.png) [@cjackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjackson)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2024, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entropy-is-scary/996987/1 "2024-02-01T20:16:13Z")
Have you ever wondered how long evidence of our current civilization and existence will last? Check this, the Great Pyramid was built 4,500 years ago, and still stands today. Great Roman structures like the Colosseum are still around. Also, consider that the written word is only just over 5,000 years old dating to the cuneiform system of the Sumerian civilization in the near-East. We know these things because they were carved on stone. Our modern writing systems are printed on paper, or transmitted through cables, or through the air as ghostly invisible electromagnetic waves. Will our cultural achievements that are stored on film, tape, paper or hard drives stand the test of time? Will our skyscrapers still be around in 4,000 years? These questions are impossible to answer now, but there will come a time when our existence is completely forgotten and washed away by the sands of time. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2024, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entropy-is-scary/996987/2 "2024-02-01T20:37:18Z")
I sometimes find entropy comforting. Everything must end, but there are many things I look forward to ending. Like a bad day. Even if nobody remembers us, everything leaves its mark on history and influences the universe through small ripples. The “butterfly flapping its wings” and all that. That’s how I find personal comfort in the knowledge of impermanence. Just because things aren’t permanent, that doesn’t mean they’re devoid of meaning. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2024, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entropy-is-scary/996987/3 "2024-02-01T20:57:36Z")
> [@cjackson](#): > > Will our skyscrapers still be around in 4,000 years? When they fall over the rubble piles will be roughly pyramidal and could easily stay that way for over 4000 years. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2024, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entropy-is-scary/996987/4 "2024-02-01T20:58:26Z")
Some large %% of stuff is crap, and arguably _should_ be forgotten. However, for stuff that you want to be legible in 10,000 years, your own post suggests that you should carve it in stone in preference to burning a CD. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2024, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entropy-is-scary/996987/5 "2024-02-01T23:19:07Z")
I thought anything posted on the internet will exist forever. At least, that’s what I warned my kids about. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2024, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entropy-is-scary/996987/6 "2024-02-02T04:09:41Z")
We’re going to leave plastic bits and radiation in future rock layers. That’s going to last quite a while. > **[Signs of the human era, from nuclear fallout to microplastics](https://phys.org/news/2023-07-human-era-nuclear-fallout-microplastics.html)** > > As scientists make the case that humans have fundamentally transformed the planet enough to warrant our own geological epoch, another question arises: is there anything left untouched by humanity's presence? ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2024, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entropy-is-scary/996987/7 "2024-02-02T04:24:13Z")
> [@cjackson](#): > > there will come a time when our existence is completely forgotten and washed away by the sands of time. My first reaction to that is, yes, and so? Let it be forgotten, as far as I’m concerned. If creative works survive, fine. If they don’t, other people will create other works that are just as good, and that will be enjoyed during or immediately after their lifetimes. Let it go, don’t try to hold onto it. If it’s important to you during your lifetime, fine. After that, you won’t care. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2024, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entropy-is-scary/996987/8 "2024-02-02T07:10:00Z")
_Boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away._ ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2024, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/entropy-is-scary/996987/9 "2024-02-02T08:09:13Z")
The irony is that even in modern times many of us have heard of Ozymandias.