A lot of people on this forum with a science inclination, like to discuss the topic of entropy. Some people even say, the generalized telos of the universe is to use up its free energy and to eventually end up in some version of a "Heat Death" whereby all work is used up across the universe and there is no processes left to perform. In this view, humans are localized versions of entropy. To the generalized telos principle, humans, by creating localized order, are increasing the general disorder and energy of the universe writ large.

What does this mean then for humans- these doers of work? Well, when tied with the principle of philosophical pessimism, it implies a good deal. Instead of Schopenhauer's overarching Will, a monistic noumenal reality, we have an overarching Entropy, a monistic phenomenal (i.e. scientific) reality. Just as Will is characterized as striving-but-for-nothing causing the modus operandi for all animals (including humans) to strive forward, procreate, survive (and entertain/maintain in the human's case), the localized negentropy of the animal is characterized by all that work of the body/mind to survive, maintain, entertain. The stresses of life, the stresses of society, the stresses of psychology, the stresses of circumstances of the animal vs. the environment, this is all just localized negentropy (contributing its part in the universal entropy). The quietus of non-existence interrupted for the work-to-b-done. Yet we can see this from the internal view. We see the very essence of our striving in our individual goals, social organization, and the individual restless mind that needs stimulus and entertainment.

We are the universe's self-reflecting strivers. Pursuing due to the unrecognized underlying principle of entropy. We must work, work, work..