| Species | Image | Phase | Formula | Entropy Sf° J/(mol K) | Formation Free Energy ΔGf° (kJ/mol) | |
| Aluminum chloride |  | Solid | AlCl3 | 109.29 | -628.9 | |
| Aluminum oxide |  | Solid | Al2O3 | 50.92 | -1582.3 |
| Term | Definition | Originator | |
| Sorting demon (1867) | A hypothetical intelligence able to sort random disordered gas molecules into two groups: fast and slow, and therein reverse the second law, and effect a decrease in entropy; not specifically an antonym, but in the same general category. | James Maxwell (1831-1879) Scottish mathematical physicist | |
| 1. | Ektropy (1900) | The energetics related to morphic order or generating order or form in ordinary space. | Georg Hirth (1841-1916) German writer |
| 2. | Ectropy (1910) | A hypothetical organizing force of life. | Felix Auerbach (1856-1933) German physicist |
| 3. | Syntropy | Syntropic (1941) | A "negative entropy" synonym; a force which causes living things to reach "higher and higher levels of organization, order and dynamic harmony." | Luigi Fantappie (1901-1956) → Albert Szent-Györgyi (1974) |
| 4. | Negative entropy (1943) | States that life is anything that "feeds" on this; not specifically an "antonym" per se. | Erwin Schrodinger (1887-1961) Austrian physicist |
| 5. | Disentropic (1947) | The “happenings which turn against the trend towards increasing entropy”. | Alfred Ubbelohde (1907-1988) Belgian thermodynamicist |
| 6. | Negentropy (1950) | A contraction of Schrodinger's "negative entropy" principle of life argument. | Leon Brillouin (1889-1969) French-born American physicist |
| 7. | Anti-entropy (1951) | An "effect of changes that are seized, draws a portion of matter in the direction of continually higher forms of structurization and centration." | Pierre Teilhard (1881-1955) French science religion philosopher |
| 8. | Extropy (1967) | A counter-entropy quantity, involving truth and beauty and goodness, would be expected to lead inevitably to god. | Harry Overstreet (1875-1970) American philosopher → Tom Bell (1988) |
| 9. | Ordiny (1975) | Defined as the opposite of entropy (disorder), i.e. "ordiny (order)", like negentropy. | Norman Dolloff (1907-1984) American metallurgical engineer |
| 10. | Centropy (c.1975) | A type of centration opposite to entropy (disgregation); where things come together; a pooling of human energies. | Joseph Bois (1892-1978) French priest-psychologist → Irving Simon (1980) |
| 11. | Exentropic (1978) | A term meant to capture the logic that since living systems are "open" they evade the second law. | Rupert Riedl | Austrian zoologist (1925-2005) |
| 12. | Neguentropy (1979) | Tendency towards order. | Joel de Rosnay | French biochemist (1937-) |
| 13. | Teleonomic entropy (1982) | A teleological-conceptualized entropy; which the conceive as "related to, but not identical to, physicochemical entropy." | Dimitri Katakis and Charis Katakis |
| 14. | Psychic negentropy (1986) | A syncretism of psychic entropy (1928) + negentropy (1942), meaning “negative psychic entropy”, referring to mental states of positive emotions such as happiness, strength, or alertness. | Mihály Csíkszentmihályi | Hungarian-born American psychologist |
| 15. | Orgatropy (1992) | Gilbert Chauvet | French mathematical physicist (1942-) | |
| 16. | Antientropism (2003) | The opposite of entropism is associated with the study of good | Keith Ferreira (c.1970-) |
| 17. | Genopsych (2007) | A hypothetical extensive psychological-thermodynamic property, operating counter to entropy, reasoned to give directionality to the process of evolution. | DMR Sekhar | Indian chemical engineer (1952-) |
See also: Human free energy table; Human free energy of formationTo go through one example, supposed we put aluminum Al in contact with firstly chlorine Cl in one reaction system, and then in a separate chlorine in contact with oxygen O, and then see whether the rule "nature tends towards" disorder will prevail as the governing paradigm:
Here, just by looking at the resulting products, aluminum chloride AlCl3 (top) and aluminum oxide Al2O3 (bottom) it is not simple a matter to point one's finger and say "ha, disorder has prevailed!", because the top pile of granules seems to be more "ordered" than the bottom chunky looking metal, and it has a higher entropy (109.29) value. Correctly, we look at the formation free energy, which in this example is greater in (negative) magnitude for the formation of aluminum oxide (1582.3) than for the aluminum chloride (628.9), therefore nature will favor the formation of the aluminum oxide over that of aluminum chloride, given the two alternative reaction directions, and this is the way it is throughout the natural world seen around us, i.e. this is how "nature selects" between different "species" as Darwin would say, NOT "survival of the fittest" but "selection of the most exergonic".
Species Image Phase Formula Entropy
Sf° J/(mol K)Formation Free Energy
ΔGf° (kJ/mol)Aluminum chloride Solid AlCl3 109.29 -628.9 Aluminum oxide Solid Al2O3 50.92 -1582.3
“It has sometimes been maintained that the second law of thermodynamics does not hold in living nature. Remember the sorting demon, invented by Maxwell, and Auerbach’s doctrine of ectropy, stating that life is an organization created to avert the menacing entropy-death of the universe. Ectropy does not exist. However, thermodynamics was concerned only with closed systems, and its extension to open systems leads to very unexpected results.”— Ludwig Bertalanffy (1950), “The Theory of Open Systems in Physics and Biology” [1]
“Many biologists have taken to speaking in terms of the entropy of an organism, or about its antonym ‘negentropy’, as a measure of the structural order within an organism.”— Robert Ulanowicz (1986), Growth and Development [2]
