Replying to LO27790 --
Dear Organlearners,
Ross Wirth <RWIRTH@citgo.com> writes:
>I am using "potential energy" as it is commonly
>used in physics and chemistry. Thinking back to
>my long-ago studies in chemistry and physics, I
>vaguely remember some discussion about free
>energy. However, it was within the frame of timing,
>i.e., immediately available versus locked up in a
>form that requires transformation to do work.
Greetings dear Ross,
It is a pity that so few scientists still study that monumental paper more
than a century ago by the brilliant American scientist Josiah Willard
Gibbs. In this paper, even monumental in its length, Gibbs did
conceptionally many things, making it monumental in this respect too. But
the most oustanding thing for me had been by creating the concept "free
energy" so as to link the concept "energy" from LEC (Law of Energy
Conservation) to the concept "entropy" from LEP (Law of Entropy
Production). This is why your "timing" comes into the picture because as
Eddington once said "Entropy [production] is time's arrow".
>Doing a Google search on "free energy" yields
>many sources of information on the term.
>However, I am quite sure that this third definition
>is not what you have in mind.
>
>One example among many similar:
> < http://www.amasci.com/freenrg/fefaq.html >
>I did not know what other keywords to use to filter
>the off-topic material from your use of the term.
Thanks for pointing this example out. This person use the phrase "free
energy" in the sense of "cheap energy", so cheap that it costs nothing.
The concept of "free energy" as it emerged within Gibbs the first time,
has to do with the relationship between the "energy" of LEC and the
"entropy" of LEP. The cheap/expensive comes in when profit makers see an
opportunity to get their hands on "free energy" (Gibbs' concept) sources.
I use the concept "free energy" in a holistic sense. In the sciences the
"free energy" is used in a reductionistic sense. The chemists will speak
of "free energy" as something chemical. The physicists will speak of it as
something physical. The few geologist or biologists who speak of it, do so
as if it something geological or biological.
Gibbs was deeply under the impression how this "free energy" connected for
him the world of phsyics and the world of chemistry. Likewise I have
become deeply under the impression how for me it connects the worlds of
physics, chemistry, geology, biology and other subjects into one world,
the phsyical world. But I have extended this connection beyond the
physical world to include also the spiritual world and the many worlds
within it. In this sense I think I have done something unique, but not
without any other reason.
It is a pity that I had to do this unique thing because it creates great
problems for me on my quest for "authentic learning" (two words, one
concept). Information is not knowledge, but is merely an image articulated
by a knowledgable person. Seeking for information on a holistic
interpretation of "free energy" points the finger to me. And the one thing
which I do not ever want is for any other fellow learner else to use this
information for rote learning. As I have explained in the past, rote
learning and free energy cannot marry each other.
I use Google's advanced search engine at
< http://www.google.com/advanced_search >
To find sources of information on "free energy" which deals
with it in an holistic manner, I would type in the second
window (exact phrase)
free energy
To get rid of all the crap as well as reductionistic stuff,
I might type in the top window (all the words)
entropy wholeness
Should I still get thousands of hits, I would add another word
like creativity to the top window, i.e.
entropy wholeness creativity
If the hits are still too many to study in time available, I would
increase the top window to
entropy wholeness creativity physical spiritual
or
entropy wholeness creativity physical spirituality
>Also, I do not understand immergence and
>ablation as you are using the terms or how you
>are using them in contrast to emergence.
Water can cause erosion. When the water flows slowly, it takes the soil
away in tiny bits. This is an ablation. Eventually a deep gulley is
created. When water rushes through the gulley, it also takes large chunks
away, sometimes bolders of several tonnes. It usually even change the
cours of the gulley. This is an immergence. In an ablation only quantities
decrease while qualities stay the same. But in an immergence both
quantities and qualities decrease.
Creativity involves two assymptotes, digestion in the valley of
equilibrium or bifurcation at the ridge of chaos. In constructive
creativity digestion leads to maturity while bifurcation leads to the
emergence of a new higher order. In destructive creativity digestion leads
to ablation/annorexia/... or whatever we may call it while bifurcation
leads to an immergence/explosion/... or whatever we may call it.
The tragic 9/11 events were gigantic immergences. What goes on daily in
almost all our schools as a result of rote learning are ablations. Like
little, slow moving water this rote learning destroys gradually our
spiritual landscape until nothing can grow upon it any more. Peter Senge's
"parable of the boiled frog" applies here.
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.