One view from Marcus Aurelius:
For there is a single harmony. Just as the world forms a single body comprising all bodies, so fate forms a single purpose, comprising all purposes.
Meditations 5:8.
The randomness of life drives to a single purpose. What is that? A singularity of purpose for Nature?
Or is it the inevitable dispersal of atoms—entropy?
Marcus Aurelius talks of Nature and the Gods on one side, and randomness and atoms on the other. There are many places in Meditations where he basically says, “Either way, why worry?”
Me, I’m kind of interested in the question. I need to read up on what physics means by entropy. In my head I use it as a shorthand for the end state of a particular process. Government inevitably devolves to dictatorship and tyranny. Competition devolves to duopoly. Etc.
That’s probably wrong, both in my understanding of the word entropy and in my understanding of end states for things, ideas, and organizations.
I want to know more.