Chemistry is like... a concert

The universe is obliged by physical laws to get messier and messier, so the only way to carve out a patch of order is to leave the surrounding area in chaos. To use more scientific terms, order can only come at the expense of a larger amount of disorder elsewhere.

In the same way, it takes something as spectacular as a concert to get such a large number of strangers to sit in such a highly ordered pattern. I know what you’re thinking: that order is only the result of the fact that all the chairs are fixed to the floor. True, but would all those strangers file into all those seats if there was no concert to see? Even if a stadium were left unlocked, you would not witness thousands of individuals filling up those rows to point their faces at an empty stage.

No, it takes some kind of spectacle to produce such an ordered group of people – like a concert. And a concert happens no more spontaneously than the filling up of the seats. It takes months of planning, advertising, promotion, ticket sales, artist rehearsals, set and lighting design to make it take place. But what happens afterwards is spontaneous; no rehearsals or extensive planning are required to get the audience back to their homes.