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Contents



Acknowledgments                                                                                       

Introduction                                                                                                

 

1.    Nature’s First Law                                                                               

           What Is Energy?                                                                               

           The Emergence of the First Law of Thermodynamics                        

           Impossibility of Perpetual Motion Machines                                      

           Radioactivity and Perpetual Energy                                                   

 

2.   Nature’s Second Law                                                                            

           The Beginning of a New Science                                                       

           The Birth of the Second Law of Thermodynamics                   

           Nature’s Irreversible Trend                                                               

           What Is That Quantity Called Entropy?                                             

           Maxwell’s Demon Attempts to Demolish Nature’s Law of Entropy    

           Entropy as “Time’s Arrow”                                                              

           Boltzmann’s Entropy Relation                                                           

 

3.   Nature’s Laws in Action                                                                        

           The Relentless Increase of Entropy                                                   

           From a Clockwork Universe to the Heat Death of the Universe 

           Thermodynamics and Cosmology                                                     

           Entropy as a Measure of Ignorance and Uncertainty                           

           Humans as an Open Thermodynamic System                                    

           Why Do We Age Irreversibly?                                                          

           Is Evolution a Miracle in Violation of the Second Law?                      

 

4.   Knowledge and Entropy                                                                        

           Knowledge Undergoes Thermodynamic Transformation                    

           Thermodynamic View of the Educational System                               

           Disorder in Knowledge                                                                     

 

5.   The United States in High Entropy                                                

           The High-Entropic Life in the United States                                       

           Possessions Generate Entropy and Dissipate Time                   

           Drowning in a Sea of Words                                                             

           More Choices but Less Time                                                            

           Are We Freeing Ourselves from Machines, at Last?                           

 

6.   The Agricultural-Industrial Complex                                                       

           Modern Agriculture and the Second Law                                           

           Chemical Control of Insects                                                              

           Soil Erosion and Degradation of the Environment                              

 

7.   What Does the Second Law Really Say?                                      

           The Availability of Energy and Natural Resources Revisited               

           Entropy: The Supreme Manager of All Natural Processes         

           The Greenhouse Effect                                                                     

           High Tech’s Environmental Entropy                                                  

           Can We “Control” Natural Processes?                                              

 

8.   Economics, the Environment, and the Laws of Thermodynamics            

           Economic Theories                                                                          

           The Economics of Computers and Technology                                 

           The Concept of Environmental Externalities in Economics                 

           Economics as an Applied Science                                                     

 

9.   Why Things Look So Good on the Horizon—Until We Get There

           Why Great Expectations Turn to Disillusionments                              

           Is Nuclear Fusion Our Response to the Second Law?                        

           Space: The Unlimited Frontier?                                                

           Entropy and Global Interdependence                                                 

 

10.  The World Through the Eyes of Thermodynamics                                 

           The Concept of “Doing More with Less”                                          

           Change and Technological “Progress” Re-examined                          

           Recognizing Low- and High-Entropic Actions and Life-styles            

 

11.  The Thermodynamic Imperative                                                            

           Does Science Tell Us How to Live?                                                  

           The Necessity of Projecting a Consistent Scientific Message              

           Making Entropy a Part of Our Daily Language                                   

           Thermodynamics and the Unity of Knowledge                                   

 

Notes                                                                                                         

Index                                                                                                          

 

 



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