tags: thermodynamics
1999
August
- 1999 Aug 28
- Complex Processes
All complex processes (life, economies, the Internet) occur upon a matrix of complexly organized homologous units that, observed in short time scales, appear to defy the laws of thermodynamics.
· Read more…
2001
April
- 2001 Apr 21
- Shrugging Off Existentialism
Philosophy and abstractions. Low self-esteem due to a superiority complex. The balance of opposing forces. The mammalian inability to be precise. Why can’t I be normal?
· Read more…
2006
March
- 2006 Mar 12
- fuck human nature
I am, ultimately, an idealist. However, I can understand that there are limits to trying to achieve utopia. There are physical laws—thermodynamics, relativity, quantum mechanics—that make certain things impossible. But when someone tells me that something is impossible because of the recalcitrance of human nature, I call bullshit.
· Read more…
May
- 2006 May 28
- apologia for the art of not wanting
I understand I’s point about the Art of Not Wanting smacking of rationalization and sophistry, but I think there is some profound truthfullness to the Art. One, there is the fact that it is one of the central tenets of Buddhism—without desire, there is no suffering. Two, it also ungirds much of the philosophy of Taoism—desire can only lead to imbalance, but desire is unnecessary because all that you need has already been provided for. The Way is all you need. (I find it interesting that Jesus Christ sometimes refers to himself as the Way.)
· Read more…
2007
November
- 2007 Nov 4
- revisiting crisis theory
I was actually first introduced to Marxist crisis theory while reading a fantasy novel, Perdido Street Station, by China Miéville. My simplistic one-liner about crisis theory is that it predicts that increasing prosperity actually diminishes the ability of labor to produce the same amount of profit, inevitably leading to a clash between capital and labor. But mathematically speaking, what this means is that the normal progression of a capitalist economy starts off high, but steadily declines, eventually approaching 0 asymptotically (although never actually reaching zero). There is probably a critical point where crisis occurs, and wealth becomes redistributed in some manner (usually violently.) This restarts the engine of capital expansion, which again inevitably declines.
· Read more…
December
- 2007 Dec 21
- documented higher risk of mortality
It's official. I have hypertension, which is more simply known as high blood pressure.
· Read more…
2014
January
- 2014 Jan 11
- the law of equivalent exchange
The Law of Equivalent Exchange in "Full Metal Alchemist" is really just a reformulation of the First Law of Thermodynamics: matter or energy cannot be created or destroyed. Everything has a price. You cannot create something from nothing. This often leads to the facile interpretation that life is a zero sum game, where one person's loss is another person's gain, and vice-versa.
· Read more…
2015
June
- 2015 Jun 30
- To Refrigerate or Not to Refrigerate
6 Well-Known Health Tips (That Don't Work At All) • 2015 Jun 30 • Cracked
· Read more…
October
- 2015 Oct 29
- Apparently Approaching the Stationary Phase of Moore's Law
Without some new breakthrough in physics, it seems unlikely that the original formulation of Moore's Law will continue to hold. This is certainly not the first gloomy forecast.
· Read more…
2016
March
- 2016 Mar 17
- Order and Stability
People talk about "order" and "stability" as if they're one and the same, but order isn't stable. Order always requires energy to maintain. It's the state of maximum entropy that's stable.
· Read more…