>There is a quantity called "entropy" that always increases or stays constant, once a system is in equilibrium; but it never decreases. No way, however contrived, has been found to counter the increase in entropy.

This reminds me of the thesis, found in Stanisław Lem's "Summa technologiae", that life is the ultimate anti-entropy. It's increasing information, getting energy organized, aggregated and put to work. This is a strictly local negation of entropy, and the total entropy still increases, but nonetheless it's an exception from the global "entropy increases" rule.