This old slatestarcodex post is fascinating to revisit in the context of everything that has happened in the 7 years since it was written:

https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/07/25/how-the-west-was-won/

Since the first time I read the post, I've probably become somewhat less confident in the idea that high-entropy cultures are almost always better.

And I feel like that's a common update coming out of recent trends: trumpism and wokeness have both proven themselves high-entropy, and it's kinda hard to approve of both.

Entropy seems like exactly the wrong term for what he’s calling universal culture. 

It’s a far-from-equilibrium dissipative system built on low-entropy physical energy (fossil fuels) via compounding cultural path dependence cf Joel Mokyr.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Mokyr