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Syntropy is a term popularized by Buckminster Fuller but also developed by others to refer to an "anti-entropy" or "negentropy". The following definition, referencing Fuller, can be found on a web site on "Whole Systems": "A tendency towards order and symmetrical combinations, designs of ever more advantageous and orderly patterns. Evolutionary cooperation. Anti-entropy."[1] Fuller's use dates to 1956[2].
Others who have contributed important ideas include Luigi Fantappié, Italian mathematician, who apparently coined the term syntropy in 1942, published in 1944, describing a unified theory of the physical and biological world[3]. His ideas incorporated general systems theory ideas from Ludwig von Bertalanffy on negentropy and from Ilya Prigogine on the thermodynamics of dissipative systems. Richard Feynman "and Fantappié (1949) showed that syntropy inverts the arrow of time, and lets information move from the future to the past." [4].
Nobel Prize winner Albert Szent-Györgyi apparently proposed to replace the term negentropy with syntropy in 1974 [5]. His ideas are explained in some depth at a Creation Science website [6] although he was not an advocate[7]
In 1988, Mario Ludovico gave a formal definition of syntropy as a measurement of the degree of order/organization internal to any system formed by interacting components. According to that definition, syntropy is a quantity complementary to entropy: The sum of these two quantities is constant for the system considered, and defines the transformation potential of the system. On this basis, the theory develops equations apt to describe any possible evolution of complex systems, particularly concerning biological/social systems.[8]
There is "an open access journal" Syntropy "dedicated to the study of syntropy in the fields of psychology, sociology, economics, ecology and spirituality" [9].
References & Bibliography[]
Syntropy is described in the book by Steve Cook and John Daniels, Designing Object Systems: Object-Oriented Modelling with Syntropy (Prentice Hall 1994, ISBN 0-13-203860-9).
- Giuseppe Arcidiacono, Entropia, sintropia, informazione, Di Renzo Editore, Roma, 2006
A formalized definition of "Syntropy", as a quantity complementary to "Entropy" and a measurement of systems organization in:
- Mario Ludovico, "L'evoluzione sintropica dei sistemi urbani - Elementi per una teoria dei sistemi autofinalizzati" ("Syntropy in the Evolution of Urban Systems - Elements for a Theory of Self-Organized Systems"), Bulzoni Editore, Roma (Italy), 1988 and 1991