In ancient Greece, men created gods to reflect the natural world, granting personalities to the aspects of nature that confused or terrified them the most. Lacking a rational understanding of the actual order of things, these personifications helped explain the capriciousness and whimsy of the world.

Zeus rattled the sky. Poseidon called forth earthquakes. Ares created war and its cruelty. Aphrodite created lust and its cruelty.

With the rise of the scientific method, ascribing particular aspects of nature to individuals, to individual personalities, fell out of favor. While the result is a clearer understanding of the true nature of the universe, it’s maybe a little too prosaic.

So I’d like to propose that we start assigning personalities to our understanding of nature again, to scientific laws. There are archetypes that perfectly embody not only how the natural world actually works, but our fears about it, too.

My dogs, for instance, are the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

Bad, entropy! Naughty! Bad!