When a house burns, it is in a decay mode. As it is when it is abandoned. The large systems in which houses are embedded try to prevent and resist such decay modes, but even so such modes still happen at times.
The large systems in which houses are embedded try to prevent and resist such decay modes, but even so such modes still happen at times. When our bodies get sick they are in decay modes, modes we try to prevent and resist. But even when not sick, our bodies are mostly in a slow overall decay mode of aging.
But even when not sick, our bodies are mostly in a slow overall decay mode of aging. As are typically our houses, cars, and organizations. Science and business seem to be improving, not decaying, even as individual scientists and business firms decay.