We know coherence when we see it. A craftsman working versus someone constantly fixing his previous mistakes. A functional organization versus bureaucratic churn. A healthy body versus one fighting itself. War, internal conflict, rework: these are wasteful. We respect people who act decisively, societies that build without tearing down, systems that run clean.
This intuition points somewhere real. In some sense, maximizing/expanding coherence is what the universe does: cutting friction, eliminating waste, building systems that don’t fight themselves. Not from external design, but because coherent systems expand until they can’t. Each pocket of coherence is the universe organizing itself better. The point is that coherence captures “good”: low friction, low conflict, no self-sabotage.
I propose that this is measurable. Coherence could be quantified as thermodynamic efficiency. Pick a boundary and time window, track energy in. The coherent part becomes exported work, heat above ambient, or durable stores (raised water, charged batteries, separated materials). The rest is loss: waste heat, rework, reversals. Systems can expand until efficiency stops generating surplus. When new coordination tools raise that limit, growth resumes. Just observable flows, no goals needed.
An interesting coincidency: maximizing thermodynamic efficiency (coherence) maximally delays heat death of a system. Higher efficiency means slower entropy increase.
I am very interested in hearing counterexamples of coherent systems that are intuitively repellent!
Coherence as Purpose
Epistemic Status: Riffing
We know coherence when we see it. A craftsman working versus someone constantly fixing his previous mistakes. A functional organization versus bureaucratic churn. A healthy body versus one fighting itself. War, internal conflict, rework: these are wasteful. We respect people who act decisively, societies that build without tearing down, systems that run clean.
This intuition points somewhere real. In some sense, maximizing/expanding coherence is what the universe does: cutting friction, eliminating waste, building systems that don’t fight themselves. Not from external design, but because coherent systems expand until they can’t. Each pocket of coherence is the universe organizing itself better. The point is that coherence captures “good”: low friction, low conflict, no self-sabotage.
I propose that this is measurable. Coherence could be quantified as thermodynamic efficiency. Pick a boundary and time window, track energy in. The coherent part becomes exported work, heat above ambient, or durable stores (raised water, charged batteries, separated materials). The rest is loss: waste heat, rework, reversals. Systems can expand until efficiency stops generating surplus. When new coordination tools raise that limit, growth resumes. Just observable flows, no goals needed.
An interesting coincidency: maximizing thermodynamic efficiency (coherence) maximally delays heat death of a system. Higher efficiency means slower entropy increase.
I am very interested in hearing counterexamples of coherent systems that are intuitively repellent!
So indeed if you define coherence as the negative of arbitrage value.
There is a pretty close relation between thermodynamic free energy and arbitrgable value and degree to which an entity can be money pumped.
You might also be interested in :
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/3xF66BNSC5caZuKyC/why-subagents