AbstractThe specific purpose of this paper is to trace the development of entropy‐related thought from its thermodynamic origins through its organizational and economic applications to its relationship to money information. That trace reveals that existing entropy measures are of states or changes in states that are caused by energy processes. We propose that entropy may as well be conceived as entropic process. The social emergent specific exchange value provides a metric by which entropic process may be quantified. The analysis connects the traditional state‐oriented entropy measures to measures of entropic process in social systems. In doing so, the character of exchange‐based societies and the function of money information within them are elaborated. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.