Motus Mentis

7 Comments

1. TheBigHenry says

   Interesting ideas, Malcolm.

   You might want to broaden your survey/conceptualizations by including considerations of the role played by entropy in the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

   It seems to me that the entire universe is dynamic in nature due to the two opposing contenders: gravity and entropy. The former can be thought of as the great assimilator/attractor/creator; the latter is the great randomizer/repeler/destructor.

   And one of the great questions of cosmology is which contender will win that tug of war. Will the universe expand without limit — entropy wins (thermodynamic- or heat-death)? Will it ultimately collapse — gravity wins (the big crunch)? Or will it come to a gradual (in infinite time) halt — a draw?

   Posted August 3, 2013 at 1:08 am | Permalink
2. Malcolm says

   Hi Henry,

   Yes, I’ve been thinking a lot about entropy; that was what I had in mind for “developing these ideas further in future posts”.

   In a closed system, entropy is maximized at thermal equilibrium, where temperature is evenly distributed throughout the container.

   Given the way we envision T in this analogy — as a highly fungible property whose manifestations include money and attention — the idea of thermal equilibrium extends the metaphor in interesting ways. (Among other things, one might understand the persistent failure of communism as a kind of “heat death”.)

   As for cosmology: my understanding is that the recent discovery that the expansion of spacetime is accelerating means that “omega” — the density ratio that determines the ultimate fate of the cosmos — is greater than 1, which means that the Big Crunch, and the “draw”, are no longer on the cards.

   Posted August 3, 2013 at 12:24 pm | Permalink
3. TheBigHenry says

   The current thinking is that omega is greater than one, because it appears that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

   But until we have an understanding of dark energy (as well as dark matter), cosmologists can’t be sure whether the acceleration is real or an illusion.

   Posted August 3, 2013 at 9:35 pm | Permalink
4. Jeanie Oliver says

   Malcolm,
   I tried to formulate an appropriate response…then decided that I am a very tiny piece of all this information. So I’ll just say “WOW” and reread it!
   Jeanie

   Posted August 3, 2013 at 9:39 pm | Permalink
5. Malcolm says

   Hi Jeanie! Nice to see you here again.

   Posted August 3, 2013 at 10:10 pm | Permalink
6. David Brightly says

   Geoffrey West on COMPLEXITY might be of interest, especially about 33 minutes in.

   Posted August 4, 2013 at 10:50 am | Permalink
7. TheBigHenry says

   @David Brightly:

   Thanx for the link. I enjoyed West’s presentation.

   Posted August 4, 2013 at 6:25 pm | Permalink