_My First Email is a series of chat interviews about digital archaeology. Today we are talking to [Motherboard contributing editor Sarah Emerson](https://twitter.com/SarahNEmerson). -Jason Koebler_

**JASON: Here are the rules. Go into Gmail, sort reverse chronologically, and open the first email you see. Sarah, what was your first email?**  
**SARAH:** my first email (that I can still recover) was from my friend Steven. Steven was also the person who told me to open a Gmail account, which I did during my senior year of high-school. I don't remember AT ALL the events that led to him forwarding me a song by MC Hawking (an artist from the early aughts who claimed to be the astrophysicist Stephen Hawking) but I'm sure there was a mildly interesting story behind it. Steven works for NASA, the last time I checked.

my second, third, fourth, etc. oldest emails are me forwarding things and reminders to myself. I still use email like this&#x2014;as a calendar and note-taking system, which is probably incredibly inefficient but works.

anyway, reading this old email makes me sad because Steven and i don't talk anymore. he was my really good friend, but in the years following college, something happened and we no longer speak. if you ever read this, Steven, I miss you and I hope we can be friends again.

are we gonna pub the screenshot? if so, i will black out the email addresses

**Do you like MC Hawking?**  
i don't even remember ever listening to MC Hawking  
**MC Hawking isn't on spotify. Could you send me a "Brief History of Rhyme?"**  
A brief history of rhyme is the ALBUM. Let me look. This song was "Entropy."

MC Hawking: Entropy
Lyrics below (many thanks to danielwuhsin).

Check out my channel and subscribe for more!

For MC Hawking MP3's visit http://mchawking.com/mp3s/

Lyrics:
Entropy, how can I explain it? I'll take it frame by frame it,
To have you all jumping, shouting saying it.
Let's just say that it's a measure of disorder,
In a system that is closed, like with a border.
It's sort of, like a, well a measurement of randomness,
Proposed in 1850 by a German, but wait I digress.
"What the f--- is entropy?", I hear the people still exclaiming,
It seems I got to start the explaining.

You ever drop an egg and on the floor you see it break?
You go and get a mop so you can clean up your mistake.
But did you ever stop to ponder why we know it's true,
If you drop a broken egg you will not get an egg that's new.

That's entropy or E-N-T-R-O to the P to the Y,
The reason why the sun will one day all burn out and die.
Order from disorder is a scientific rarity,
Allow me to explain it with a little bit more clarity.
Did I say rarity? I meant impossibility,
At least in a closed system, there will always be more entropy.
That's entropy and I hope that you're all down with it,
If you are here's your membership.

You down with entropy?
Yeah, you know me!
Who's down with entropy?
Every last homey!

Defining entropy as disorder's not complete,
'Cause disorder as a definition doesn't cover heat.
So my first definition I would now like to withdraw,
And offer one that fits thermodynamics second law.
First we need to understand that entropy is energy,
Energy that can't be used, to state it more specifically.
In a closed system entropy always goes up,
That's the second law, now you know what's up.

You can't win, you can't break even, you can't leave the game,
'Cause entropy will take it all though it seems a shame.
The second law, as we now know, is quite clear to state,
that entropy must increase and not dissipate.

Creationists always try to use the second law,
To disprove evolution, but their theory has a flaw.
The second law is quite precise about where it applies,
Only in closed systems must the entropy count rise.
The Earth's not a closed system, it's powered by the Sun,
So f--- the damn creationists, Doomsday get my gun!
That, in a nutshell, is what entropy's about.
You're now down with a discount.

MC Hawking - Entropy

**This song is kind of dope. This is definitely the easiest way to rap though.**  
I think the real Stephen Hawking would find it funny. Oh my god, he performed FOR Stephen Hawking!!!  
**Do you like other nerdcore?**  
Is B.o.B. nerdcore?  
**Do you like B.o.B.?**  
No I just remember Neil deGrasse Tyson got really mad about his flat earth song.  
**This is how you feel about Steven:**

FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

An MC Hawking Song Is My First Email

FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

An MC Hawking Song Is My First Email

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