From: T0Morrow (T0Morrow@aol.com)
Date: Fri Oct 31 1997 - 07:24:49 MST
>Why was "Extropy" the lucky word ?
I coined this work in January of '88 in the course of researching the
information-based interpretation of entropy. The roots "ex" and "tropy"
essentially mean "out of" and "disorder." I chose "ex" as an alternative to
"en" in "entropy" because I sought a word that would indicated, in a general
sense, a movement towards greater information. I did not want to use
"negentropy" because that already had a narrow, technical definition.
Please note that I do not claim to be the first person to ever put together
"ex" and "tropy"; I could never prove that claim at any rate. But I do not
think that any predecessor had used "extropy" in the sense that I intended,
and that Max has so ably fleshed out.
Tom
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