
Entropy is basically a natural phenomenon that all systems eventually go to, giving themselves to chaos and disorder. Closed systems are what we call things that are 'not alive' (like brick wall) if no one is there to fix the wall, it will decay and break (so, it will give itself to entropy). Open systems are things that are alive (but 'alive' has various meanings, so not just animals or humans are open systems, companies, social circles and even relationships can be considered open systems), and the open systems are less prone to give themselves to entropy (death) because they receive feedback (hunger, fever, cold) and retrofeeds themselves (eat, medicine, fire). So fear in the case of this story is simply stupid because it is a "feedback" that there is something wrong in the system, but 'distracting' entropy by not fearing it? It's just stupid.
So funny that I learned about Entropy in System's Analysis, I got so confused about the half assed explanation about it that I totally forgot that the author is giving some wild reason why the ML is a strong being. I was like "Yeah, this is applicable for closed systems where feedback and retroallimentation doesn't happen, so why....oh"