Background
It has been stated earlier that Potential is able to shift and move around with no regard to the rules of Entropy. When a technomancer attunes an object, the exchange is perfect. Furthermore, if enough Potential is granted, the system seems to gain even more potential on top of its intrinsic and infused values. Potential builds and diminishes no regard for any of the classical limitations.(*) It was not untill the early 28th century that enough empirical evidence was collected to suggest that the transfer of Potential does indeed create slight inefficiencies or side-effects.
The first observation of these phenomena came when a Technomantic research lab fully mapped out every possible new application that would appear when an extremely specialized (**) attuned weapon exhibited Emergent Potential. The weapon was made in precisely the same way each time and attuned in three large test sets with a single technomancer attuning every weapon in the same set. From these experiments it was first determined that the the pool of new Foci opened up by Emergent Potential was the same for every single object. They had discovered next a predictable and reliable process in which one could coax which new Foci were unlocked. These methods of prediction and selection were only effective untill the weapon had surpassed its Minutiae, after that point the object acted with its own unique will.
The last discovery of the reaserch project was that something else was indeed happening to the last series of attuned weapons. The pool of new foci shrank by a very tiny margin. After several exhaustive reviews of the data it was determined that the attuned weapon had indeed lost the possibility of inheriting Foci that weapons earlier in the series freely manifested. The weapon's effective Minutiae threshold had lowered as had the total amount of Effect generated when the weapon was attuned. This also meant that the amount of Emergent Potential generated had also decreased. This was the first time anyone had recorded a natural loss of Potential within any object.
Redefinition
There is still a great deal of debate on how the decrease functions but after intense experimentation the prevailing thesis is that the concept of Entropy as it has stood through history is inherently flawed. Entropy has been equated with disorder or disuse. In the old system it is the tendency of a system to lose efficacy and run itself down. This definition covers energy but not Potential. If one takes Potential into account, then entropy becomes the basic tendency of the universe to limit possibility and settle into a basic, predictable, and patterned state.(***)
As potential is worked through a system it appears that the system retains a kind of memory of all previous attunements that previously occured with it. It is believed that this is due to the sympathetic link that all systems have under the Law of Correspondence. Each attunement acted upon that system increases the liklihood of that system to lose new potential Foci when Emergent Potential occurs.
Given that Potential spreads unevenly into Foci unlocked after attunement...
And given that if the total Effect (Potential/Focus) after attunement surpasses the system's Minutiae, then the new total Potential (Focus * Effect) becomes the systems intrinsic Potential (that is, the Potential infused by a technomancer becomes the system's own)...
And given that reducing the amount of Foci unlocked after attunement reduces the system's Minutiae. . .
And given that any item reduced past the Spark Point no longer has Minutiae and will never attain consciousness or integrate the potential infused into it. . .
Then, any system in the universe will tend to lose new functions over time and thus become more limited, more specialized, and less emergent.
This new definition of entropy applies to all possible systems. The supposed “Heat Death” of the universe is a reality although it has nothing to do with heat. The universe will reach an end, or Final Stasis Point when all systems fall below the Spark Point and Emergent Potential is no longer possible.(****)
Footnotes
(*) - The exploration of Technomancy's effects under the third rule of (classical) entropy (called Hypomancy or Technicide) focuses on the diminishment of a system's Potential. While extremely difficult it does seem possible and seems to ignore the rules of (classical) entropy as well. This practice has been banned by almost every governing organization on Varius.
(**) - The design of the Ballista MPB 38-39 alone took several years. Its only function was to break doors. Technomantic theory allowed it to simply not function on anything else.
(***) - This idea has opened some debate as to weather the universe itself is a system and if so, what kind of potential would be required to overcome its Minutiae or if this has indeed already occured.
(****) - This represents the known limit of Technomantic knowledge by the end of the AoC. Further refinements are made along these lines but the largest breakthroughs do not occur until well into the AI Wars.
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