Dear Organlearners,
Greetings to all of you.
A fellow learner wrote to me in private, asking whether LEP (Law of
Entropy Production) can also be applied to knowledge. He knows that LEP
applies to physical world where it is better known as the SLT (Second Law
of Thermodynamics). He also knows of Prigogine's thesis that the SLT
drives physical self-organising systems which are called "dissipative
structures".
My answer to him was that, firstly, I do not refer any more to the
discipline thermodynamics. For me "entropy production" encompasses far
more than the discipline. The discipline thermodynamics still exists and
the SLT is still a law of it. It is taught to students in their tens of
thousands. A reversible change /_\(rev) in entropy S is still defined
operationally as a heat flow Q divided by the absolute temperature T at
which it happens. Symbolically
. /_\(rev)S = Q/T
However, irreversible entropy production /_\(irr)S itself comes to light
when the heat flow Q from a higher temperature T(2) to a lower
temperature T(1). Symbolically
. /_\(irr)S = Qx[1/T(1) - 1/T(2)]
Here the heat Q is called an entropic flux and the difference in inverted
temperatures [1/T(1) - 1/T(2)] is called an entropic force. Prigogine
discovered some fifty years ago that entropy can be produced by many
such force-flux pairs.
For example, consider an electrical resistor at an even temperature T
through which an electrical charge /_\X flows. When /_\X flows from a
higher electrical potential Y(2) to a lower electrical potential Y(1), the
entropy produced is given by.
. /_\(irr)S = /_\Xx[Y(2) - Y(1)]/T
Here the flow of electrical charge /_\X functions as the entropic flux
while the difference in electrical potential [Y(2) - Y(1)]/T functions as
the entropic force. We have to divide the electrical potential difference
by the temperature T (now even and not a difference) to get eventually
the correct measuring unit (joule per kelvin) for entropy since the
measuring unit of /_\Xx[Y(2) - Y(1)] self is that of energy (joule).
There are many forms of energy. Each form of energy (unit joule) can be
written like in the example above as the product XxY of an extensive
factor X and an intensive factor Y. When a system is scaled to a larger or
smaller size, all the extensive factors X also scale likewise while all
the intensive factors Y remain the same. Should a form of energy change by
its extensive factor X flowing with an amount /_\X from a higher value
Y(2) of the intensive factor to a lower value Y(1), entropy is produced
according to the formula
. /_\(irr)S = /_\Xx[Y(2) - Y(1)]/T
The formula /_\Xx[Y(2) - Y(1)] (with unit joule) is already a function
which increases towards a maximum like Qx[1/T(1) - 1/T(2)] (with unit
joule per kelvin) does. Although we have to divide /_\Xx[Y(2) - Y(1)] by
the temperature T to transform the unit of energy to get the appropriate
unit of entropy, there is something deeper going on here. We affirm by the
necessity of this division that all such formulas, one each for each form
of energy, belongs to a greater, ordered whole. Entropy production itself
is always manifested as increasing chaos in the present order. But by now
bringing in at least wholeness (all have to be divided) and sureness (by
precisely the temperature) into the picture of entropy production, this
entropy production can become manifested in order rather than chaos for
the physical world!
However, the fragmentaristic and reductionistic way in which
thermodynamics is applied as a discipline, is resulting in chaos rather
than order. This is the main reason why I have stopped using the term
thermodynamics some dozen years ago.
The second part of my answer was that for the spiritual world which
is complementary to the physical world, we will either have to assume
that LEP applies or to demonstrate empirically that LEP applies. I
wonder whether you fellow learners have an idea of what such an
empirical demonstration entails? Consider once again the formula
. /_\(irr)S = /_\Xx[Y(2) - Y(1)]/T
The closest spiritual counterpart which we can find to it is the art of
Goethe. He said that in nature as the Creator's art as well as in human
art, he is deeply aware of two things, "tension" and "staggering". The
"tension" may very well be the difference [Y(2) - Y(1)] in "intensive
quantities" which we now will rather call qualities. I cannot find yet any
identification by him for the flow /_\X. The "staggering" is then the
emergence upon emergence as a result of such entropy production.
Hegel, taking these two clues from Goethe, worked it into his
philosophy called dialecticism. He spoke of Goethe's "tension" as the
tension between a thesis and an antithesis. This can again be identified
with [Y(2) - Y(1)]. But he went further by saying that the thesis has to
consume the antithesis. This consumption is coming very close to
identifying /_\X flowing from Y(2) as antithesis to Y(1) as thesis. When
doing this, the thesis-antithesis will then lead to a synthesis (emergence).
A string of such consecutive syntheses is then Goethe's "staggering".
However, our gigantic problem with identifying Hegel' dialecticism with
LEP in the spiritual world, is the division by temperature T in the formula
. /_\(irr)S = /_\Xx[Y(2) - Y(1)]/T
How will we ever measure "temperature" in the spiritual world? It is easy
to do so in the physical world -- we use a thermometer! The closest we
can get spiritually to "temperature" is temperament. But how will ever
measure that? Yet we will have to measure "spiritual temperature" and
"divide" by it if we ever want to identify LEP in terms of Hegel's
dialecticism. Anything less and we lose the wholeness expressed by
this "division with spiritual temperature"!
So we will have to think radically different when trying to show
empirically that LEP also applies to the spiritual world. We will rather
have to focus on this increasing wholeness and how it relates to Goethe's
idea of "staggering". By doing this, we may then encounter some pattern
(like chromatography, electrophoresis or polarography) typical of how LEP
manifest itself in the physical world.
Anyway, let us now assume that "entropy production" does indeed also
happen in the spiritual world and that knowledge is one of the
self-organising systems in the human spirit as a result of LEP. What has
become of wholeness in knowledge? Some time ago I wrote that for myself,
knowledge lives in the mind of a person. Information is for me that which
is found in books and nowadays even in computer memories. However,
billions of people believe that knowledge is to be found in libraries and
Internet from where it has to be memorised so as to live within a person.
Most scientists believe it to, otherwise they would not have made such a
big issue out of publish or perish.
So, let us observe what has become of wholeness in what they call
knowledge (out there ;-) but which I will keep on calling information. Let
us take the topic "entropy production" itself to which wholeness is vital
as I have argued above. Let us explore on sites of Internet with an
advanced search engine such as Google and see what we can come up with.
The URL to the advanced search of Google is
http://www.google.com/advanced_search
The second window is for an exact phrase which has to occur in every hit.
I will use the phrase "entropy production" in the second window for every
search. This will give me an indication of the chaos, the first
manifestation of "entropy production". I have not included synonyms for
"entropy production" such as dissipation and irreversibility in my survey.
The first window in the advanced Google is for all words (one by one)
which have to occur in the file on site. I will use the first window to
search for "increasing order", the second manifestation of "entropy
production". I will put in it an increasing diversity of concepts related
to "entropy production" in the second window. When two words are synonyms,
I will put them behind // to indicate that they both have been entered
into the third window. For the other windows I will use "any language",
"any time", "anywhere in page" and "any site". After each five searches I
will comment on them before searching further.
In the number of hits given, I have merely given Google's selection. I did
not explore hints to "Similar pages". I also did not determine how many of
the hits were my own contributions of which most are archived in
"learning-org.com".
Search Hits First window Third window
1 2940 -- --
2 1040 free energy --
3 162 force pairs //flux, flow
4 220 chaos bifurcation --
5 27 free energy force pairs chaos bifurcation //flux flow
Comments:
(1) I browsed through a couple of hundred of these sites and my mind
still reels with the striking diversity as well as immense fragmentary
nature of it all.
(2) The change in free energy /_\F(sy) of the system is the most
important complementary dual to the entropy production /_\S(un) in
the universe. Let us see how many sites bring "free energy" into the
ordering upon "entropy production! Approximately 30%.
(3) Entropy is produced by force-flux (force-flow) pairs, one for each
changing form of energy. Far less sites mention it.
(4) When the entropy production is fast enough, the system will be
driven to the ridge of chaos where (ordinate) bifurcations happen.
(5) Let us now see how many sites present the wholeness in the
ordering between the topics in 2, 3 and 4. A mere 1% of the sites! In
other words, there is much chaos (2940 hits), but little order (27 hits).
Search Hits First window Third window
6 1060 chemical --
7 92 geological --
8 606 biological --
9 58 chemical geological biological --
10 19 chemical geological biological free energy --
(6)-(8) It seems as if chemists lead the way in
irreversible="entropy producing" self-organisation. Yet they are more
in number than the biologists while the geologists are least in number.
Hence roughly the same sensitivity exists in these three subjects
towards "entropy production".
(9) But once we search for files which mention all three main strata of
the physical world, there are less much less sensitivity to the ordered
whole. Again the order (58 hits) is some 3% among all the chaos
(1758 hits).
(10) Dramatically less (about 1%) are contributions in which both
entropy production and free energy is kept in mind as complementary
duals in all three these strata.
Search Hits First window Third window
11 1140 physical --
12 260 mental --
13 110 spiritual --
14 164 material mental --
15 80 physical spiritual --
(11)-(13) The hits in which "physical" is mentioned, are about 4 times as
much as the hits in which either spiritual or mental are used. This can be
expected since little evidence, if any, had been published that LEP also
applies to the spiritual world. Scientists at present have to work with
their suspicions and speculations rather than empirical evidence and
falsifications.
(14)-(15) The complementary dual "material-mental" seems to be favoured
twice as much as "physical-spiritual". Nevertheless, this kind of ordering
between the two complements of reality is about 10% (244 hits) of the
total chaos (2940 hits)
Search Hits First window Third window
16 271 creativity --
17 546 learning --
18 610 knowledge --
19 237 creativity learning --
20 74 free energy creativity learning knowledge --
(16) My own curious definition for creativity the past fifteen years is
that it is the first major manifestation of "entropy production" in the
anthroposphere (world of humans). About 10% of thinkers (271 hits)
among the total chaos (2940 hits) involving "entropy production" may
perhaps understand this definition, although they need not to agree
upon it.
(17)-(18) Those sensitive to "entropy production" in learning or in
knowledge are approximately the same (some 20%) relative to the
total chaos.
(19)-(20) However, as soon as we search for increasing wholeness in
the order, the numbers drop rapidly. Again less than 1% have an a
complete overview over the epistemology.
Search Hits First window Third window
21 74 faith --
22 68 believing --
23 65 religion --
24 19 believing religion --
25 3 free energy believing religion God --
(21)-(23) As for the realm involving religion, less than 10% (207 our of
2940 hits) are aware that "entropy production" may even be a key
concept here.
(25) Less than 0.01% (3 hits) uncovered a sensitivity towards "entropy
production" and "free energy" on the one hand and God on the other
hand with respect to the realm of religion.
Search Hits First window Third window
26 46 personality --
27 31 spirituality --
28 22 personality character --
29 6 spirituality religion --
30 22 free energy spirituality --
(26)-(30) As for holistic topics of psychology like personality,
spirituality and character, some 1% to 2% of the hits indicate an
awareness to an ordered whole here.
Search Hits First window Third window
31 147 wholeness --
32 195 diversity --
33 81 openness --
34 377 emergence --
35 9 wholeness diversity openness emergence
(31)-(35) As for patterns essential to the "order out of chaos" like
wholeness, otherness (diversity) and openness, less than 10% are
aware of a particular pattern. Those aware of three or more patterns,
are about 0.3% among the total chaos.
Search Hits First window Third window
36 152 university //wholeness openness
37 127 university wholeness //learning knowledge
38 13 university wholeness learning spirituality
39 66 university wholeness learning //chaos order
40 11 university wholeness learning passion
(36)-(40) Many of the hits merely mention "university" as part of the
address of a contributor. Should this be left out, there are striking little
hits on wholeness as a major quality of the character of a university.
Spirituality and passion so peculiar of high order emergences as a
result of entropy production within the human are almost non-existent.
I am deeply worried on the evolution of knowledge (not the production of
information!) at universities. We know that out of Hegel's Dialecticism
the Dialectical Materialism of Karl Marx followed by Communism as a
subsequent correction to it. This Dialectical Materialism eventually
mesmerised some 40% of the human population for almost a century. But it
had to be abandoned in the early 1990s because very much of the 7Es
(livemess, sureness, wholeness, fruitfulness, spareness, otherness and
openness) were denied. I have to stress emphatically that this denial was
not in the works of Goethe and Hegel self, although they did not formally
articulate the 7Es per se (except wholeness in the case of Goethe).
In other words, when an evolutionistic strategy somewhat akin to that of
"entropy production"finally took hold in the minds of zillions of ordinary
people, it became a grand fiasco without the guidance of patterns
essential to creativity, learning and believing. Chaos manifested, but not
the subsequent new order upon which most of these people hoped.
The universities are now following a similar, but dual course, which I
perhaps can articulate as "Dialectical Intellectualism" with Technology as
its subsequent correction. The 7Es (seven essentialities of creativity)
seem to be denied as seriously as in the case of Dialectical Materialism
and Communism. As a consequence the evolution of knowledge in the minds of
people who are being trained in universities is minute compared to the
explosion of chaotic, loose information in repositories like libraries and
Internet. Should it goes on like this, will universities not also become
abandoned in a swift manner?
Please, do not understand me wrong. I love my work at the university and I
have immense respect for what universities have accomplished the past
eight centuries. I know of many thinkers at universities who struggle
daily against the overemphasis of producing information outside the person
and almost ignorance to the evolution of knowledge within the person.
However, I am deeply aware that universities are lingering too long at the
ridge of chaos where ordinate bifurcations happen.
Should constructive emergences into a new higher order not happen, then
destructive immergences to a lower order will surely happen. Not even the
most dedicated caretakers of the "information explosion" will be able of
preventing this demise of the universities.
To prepare themselves for constructive emergences, universities will have
to take at least one of the patterns essential to "entropy production",
creativity and learning into consideration. This is vital to make
themselves sensitive to all the other essential patterns and search for
the understanding in them too. The pattern which historically presented
itself the most clearly, is "increasing wholeness" through the works of
thinkers like R Bacon, G Leibnitz, Goethe and J Smuts.
Universities will have to reflect this "increasing wholeness" in the
courses which they offer, rather than increasing fragmentation and
specialization as its opposite. They can still follow their strategy of
"publish or perish", but whatever is not indicative of increasing
wholeness should perish rather than be published. I do not argue for a
moratorium on producing new information because we will always need it.
But I cannot caution strong enough against publishing new information in a
fragmented manner.
Obviously, every university will have to change their present organisation
so as to promote such evolution of inner knowledge and roduction of
holistic information. I cannot think of a better transformation than that
into a Learning Organisation. Senge clearly identified wholeness as one of
the 11 essences of a LO. Any organisation which does not endeavour for
increasing wholeness, will not emerge into a LO. Sooner or later it will
become a victim to the excessive chaos as the first manifestation of
"entropy production". So let us transform our universities in a
responsible manner, the sooner the better because later may easily become
too late.
With care and best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <Richard@Karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>
"Learning-org" and the format of our message identifiers (LO1234, etc.) are trademarks of Richard Karash.