On Energy (1980-1989)

"Thus, in physics, entropy is associated with the possibility of converting thermal energy into mechanical energy. If the entropy does not change during a process, the process is reversible. If the entropy increases, the available energy decreases. Statistical mechanics interprets an increase of entropy as a decrease in order or, if we wish, as a decrease in our knowledge." (John R Pierce, "An Introduction to Information Theory: Symbols, Signals & Noise" 2nd Ed., 1980)

"Time goes forward because energy itself is always moving from an available to an unavailable state. Our consciousness is continually recording the entropy change in the world around us. [...] we experience the passage of time by the succession of one event after another. And every time an event occurs anywhere in this world energy is expended and the overall entropy is increased. To say the world is running out of time then, to say the world is running out of usable energy. In the words of Sir Arthur Eddington, 'Entropy is time's arrow'." (Jeremy Rifkin, "Entropy", 1980)

"The basis of this theory is that in nature there is an inherent uncertainty or unpredictability that manifests itself only on an atomic scale. For example, the position of a subatomic particle such as an electron may not be a well-defined concept at all; it should be envisaged as jiggling around in a random sort of a way. Energy, too, becomes a slightly nebulous concept, subject to capricious and unpredictable changes." (Paul C W Davies, "The Edge of Infinity: Where the Universe Came from and How It Will End", 1981)

"The world's present industrial civilization is handicapped by the coexistence of two universal, overlapping, and incompatible intellectual systems: the accumulated knowledge of the last four centuries of the properties and interrelationships of matter and energy; and the associated monetary culture which has evolved from folkways of prehistoric origin. […] Despite their inherent incompatibilities, these two systems during the last two centuries have had one fundamental characteristic in common, namely exponential growth, which has made a reasonably stable coexistence possible. But, for various reasons, it is impossible for the matter-energy system to sustain exponential growth for more than a few tens of doublings, and this phase is by now almost over. The monetary system has no such constraints, and according to one of its most fundamental rules, it must continue to grow by compound interest." (Marion K Hubbert, "Two Intellectual Systems: Matter-energy and the Monetary Culture", [seminar] 1981)

"A Universal Turing Machine is an ideal mathematical object; it represents a formal manipulation of symbols and owes allegiance to criteria of logical consistency but not to physical laws and constraints. Thus, for example, physical variables play no essential role in the concept of algorithm. In reality, however, every logical operation occurs at a minimum cost of KT of energy dissipation" (where K is Boltzman's constant and T is temperature) and, in fact, occurs at a much higher cost to insure reliability." (Claudia Carello et al, "The Inadequacies of the Computer Metaphor", 1982)

"The difference is that energy is a property of the microstates, and so all observers, whatever macroscopic variables they may choose to define their thermodynamic states, must ascribe the same energy to a system in a given microstate. But they will ascribe different entropies to that microstate, because entropy is not a property of the microstate, but rather of the reference class in which it is embedded. As we learned from Boltzmann, Planck, and Einstein, the entropy of a thermodynamic state is a measure of the number of microstates compatible with the macroscopic quantities that you or I use to define the thermodynamic state." (Edwin T Jaynes, "Papers on Probability, Statistics, and Statistical Physics", 1983)

"There is a fact, or if you wish, a law governing all natural phenomena that are known to date. There is no known exception to this law - it is exact as far as we know. The law is called the conservation of energy. It states that there is a certain quantity, which we call energy, that does not change in the manifold changes which nature undergoes. That is a most abstract idea, because it is a mathematical principle; it says that there is a numerical quantity which does not change when something happens." (Richard P Feynman et al, "The Feynman Lectures on Physics" Vol. 1, 1983)

"To a considerable degree science consists in originating the maximum amount of information with the minimum expenditure of energy. Beauty is the cleanness of line in such formulations along with symmetry, surprise, and congruence with other prevailing beliefs." (Edward O Wilson,"Biophilia", 1984)

"In the real world, none of these assumptions are uniformly valid. Often people want to know why mathematics and computers cannot be used to handle the meaningful problems of society, as opposed, let us say, to the moon boondoggle and high energy-high cost physics. The answer lies in the fact that we don't know how to describe the complex systems of society involving people, we don't understand cause and effect, which is to say the consequences of decisions, and we don't even know how to make our objectives reasonably precise. None of the requirements of classical science are met. Gradually, a new methodology for dealing with these 'fuzzy' problems is being developed, but the path is not easy." (Richard E Bellman, "Eye of the Hurricane: An Autobiography", 1984)

"To a considerable degree science consists in originating the maximum amount of information with the minimum expenditure of energy. Beauty is the cleanness of line in such formulations along with symmetry, surprise, and congruence with other prevailing beliefs." (Edward O Wilson, "Biophilia", 1984)

"The power and glory of symmetry allow us to bypass completely the construction of strong interaction theories of dubious utility. We are able to contain and isolate our ignorance. [...] Symmetry tells us that states in the same multiplet must have the same energy, but it cannot tell us what that energy is." (Anthony Zee, "Fearful Symmetry: The Search for Beauty in Modern Physics", 1986)

"If grand unified theories are correct, we ought to be able to derive the relative power of the strong, weak, and electromagnetic interactions at accessible energies from their presumed equality at much higher energies. When this is attempted, a wonderful result emerges. …in the form first calculated by Howard Georgi, Helen Quinn, and Steven Weinberg […] The couplings of strong-interaction gluons decrease, those of the [weak interaction] W bosons stay roughly constant, and those of the [electromagnetic interaction] photons increase at short distances [or high energies] - so they all tend to converge, as desired." (Frank Wilczek, "Longing for the Harmonies: Themes and Variations from Modern Physics", 1987)

"What is conserved, in modern physics, is not any particular substance or material but only much more abstract entities such as energy, momentum, and electric charge. The permanent aspects of reality are not particular materials or structures but rather the possible forms of structures and the rules for their transformation." (Frank Wilczek, "Longing for the Harmonies: Themes and Variations from Modern Physics", 1987)

"The concept of entropy relates to the tendency of things to move toward greater disorder, or disorganization. […] The second law of thermodynamics expresses precisely the same concept. This states that heat dissipates from a central source and the energy becomes degraded, although total energy remains constant" (the first law of thermodynamics). Entropy suggests that organisms, organizations, societies, machines, and so on, will rapidly deteriorate into disorder and death." The reason they do not is because animate things can self-organize and inanimate things may be serviced by man. These are negentropic activities which require energy. Energy, however, can be made available only by further degradation. Ultimately, therefore, entropy wins the day and the attempts to create order can seem rather a daunting task in the entropic scheme of things. Holding back entropy, however, is another of the challenging tasks for the systems scientist." (Robert L Flood & Ewart R Carson, "Dealing with Complexity: An introduction to the theory and application of systems", 1988)

"Physics is the basic science of matter and energy, and engineering is physics applied to structures and machines. They and chemistry are the sciences that biologists need to explain the structure and mechanism of living things." (R McNeill Alexander, "Dynamics of Dinosaurs and Other Extinct Giants", 1989)

On Energy (1990-1999)

"In physics, there are numerous phenomena that are said to be 'true on all scales', such as the Heisenberg uncertainty relation, to which no exception has been found over vast ranges of the variables involved (such as energy versus time, or momentum versus position). But even when the size ranges are limited, as in galaxy clusters (by the size of the universe) or the magnetic domains in a piece of iron near the transition point to ferromagnetism (by the size of the magnet), the concept true on all scales is an important postulate in analyzing otherwise often obscure observations." (Manfred Schroeder, "Fractals, Chaos, Power Laws Minutes from an Infinite Paradise", 1990)

"Three laws governing black hole changes were thus found, but it was soon noticed that something unusual was going on. If one merely replaced the words 'surface area' by 'entropy' and 'gravitational field' by 'temperature', then the laws of black hole changes became merely statements of the laws of thermodynamics. The rule that the horizon surface areas can never decrease in physical processes becomes the second law of thermodynamics that the entropy can never decrease; the constancy of the gravitational field around the horizon is the so-called zeroth law of thermodynamics that the temperature must be the same everywhere in a state of thermal equilibrium. The rule linking allowed changes in the defining quantities of the black hole just becomes the first law of thermodynamics, which is more commonly known as the conservation of energy." (John D Barrow, "Theories of Everything: The Quest for Ultimate Explanation", 1991)

"What is an attractor? It is the set on which the point P, representing the system of interest, is moving at large times" (i.e., after so-called transients have died out). For this definition to make sense it is important that the external forces acting on the system be time independent" (otherwise we could get the point P to move in any way we like). It is also important that we consider dissipative systems" (viscous fluids dissipate energy by self-friction). Dissipation is the reason why transients die out. Dissipation is the reason why, in the infinite-dimensional space representing the system, only a small set" (the attractor) is really interesting." (David Ruelle, "Chance and Chaos", 1991)

"Symmetry is bound up in many of the deepest patterns of Nature, and nowadays it is fundamental to our scientific understanding of the universe. Conservation principles, such as those for energy or momentum, express a symmetry that" (we believe) is possessed by the entire space-time continuum: the laws of physics are the same everywhere." (Ian Stewart & Martin Golubitsky, "Fearful Symmetry: Is God a Geometer?", 1992)

"The new information technologies can be seen to drive societies toward increasingly dynamic high-energy regions further and further from thermodynamical equilibrium, characterized by decreasing specific entropy and increasingly dense free-energy flows, accessed and processed by more and more complex social, economic, and political structures." (Ervin László, "Information Technology and Social Change: An Evolutionary Systems Analysis", Behavioral Science 37, 1992)

"The description of the evolutionary trajectory of dynamical systems as irreversible, periodically chaotic, and strongly nonlinear fits certain features of the historical development of human societies. But the description of evolutionary processes, whether in nature or in history, has additional elements. These elements include such factors as the convergence of existing systems on progressively higher organizational levels, the increasingly efficient exploitation by systems of the sources of free energy in their environment, and the complexification of systems structure in states progressively further removed from thermodynamic equilibrium." (Ervin László et al, "The Evolution of Cognitive Maps: New Paradigms for the Twenty-first Century", 1993)

"The universe is driven by the complex interaction between three ingredients: matter, energy, and enlightened self-interest." (Marc S Zicree, "Survivors" [episode of Babylon 5], 1994)

"In contemplating natural phenomena, we frequently have to distinguish between effective complexity and logical depth. For example, the apparently complicated pattern of energy levels of atomic nuclei might easily be misattributed to some complex law at the fundamental level, but it is now believed to follow from a simple underlying theory of quarks, gluons, and photons, although lengthy calculations would be required to deduce the detailed pattern from the basic equations. Thus the pattern has a good deal of logical depth and very little effective complexity." (Murray Gell-Mann, "What is Complexity?", Complexity Vol. 1" (1), 1995)

"It [Living Systems Theory" (LST)] involves observing and measuring important relationships between inputs and outputs of the total system and identifying the structures that perform each of the sub‐system processes. […] The flows of relevant matter, energy, and information through the system and the adjustment processes of subsystems and the total system are also examined. The status and function of the system are analyzed and compared with what is average or normal for that type of system. If the system is experiencing a disturbance in some steady state, an effort is made to discover the source of the strain and correct it." (James G Miller & Jessie L Miller, "Applications of living systems theory", Systemic Practice and Action Research 8, 1995)

"As we explore physics at higher and higher energy, revealing its structure at shorter and shorter distances, we discover more and more symmetry." (David J Gross,"The Role of Symmetry in Fundamental Physics", 1996)

"All systems evolve, although the rates of evolution may vary over time both between and within systems. The rate of evolution is a function of both the inherent stability of the system and changing environmental circumstances. But no system can be stabilized forever. For the universe as a whole, an isolated system, time’s arrow points toward greater and greater breakdown, leading to complete molecular chaos, maximum entropy, and heat death. For open systems, including the living systems that are of major interest to us and that interchange matter and energy with their external environments, time’s arrow points to evolution toward greater and greater complexity. Thus, the universe consists of islands of increasing order in a sea of decreasing order. Open systems evolve and maintain structure by exporting entropy to their external environments." (L Douglas Kiel, "Chaos Theory in the Social Sciences: Foundations and Applications", 1996)

"As we explore physics at higher and higher energy, revealing its structure at shorter and shorter distances, we discover more and more symmetry." (David J Gross, "The Role of Symmetry in Fundamental Physics", 1996)

"Contrary to what happens at equilibrium, or near equilibrium, systems far from equilibrium do not conform to any minimum principle that is valid for functions of free energy or entropy production." (Ilya Prigogine, "The End of Certainty: Time, Chaos, and the New Laws of Nature", 1996)

"The universe would have expanded in a smooth way from a single point. As it expanded, it would have borrowed energy from the gravitational field, to create matter. As any economist could have predicted, the result of all that borrowing, was inflation. The universe expanded and borrowed at an ever-increasing rate. Fortunately, the debt of gravitational energy will not have to be repaid until the end of the universe." (Stephen Hawking," The Beginning of Time", 1996)

"A pendulum swings in a circle, so there is a lowest point that it can possibly reach - hanging vertically downwards. Any change in potential energy must be compensated by an equal and opposite change in kinetic energy: if the bob gets higher, it has to move more slowly; if it gets lower, it has to move faster. Imagine grabbing the pendulum by its bob and raising it to some chosen height. Hold it steady. Your hand did some work, and increased the bob's potential energy. The kinetic energy is zero because the pendulum is not moving. Now let go, and from now on let the pendulum move as it wishes. Gravity pulls the bob downwards, so the potential energy decreases. Kinetic energy must increase to compensate, so the weight starts to fall. At some stage the bob must reach the lowest point of the circle: here its potential energy is zero, so all of the energy has become kinetic. Not only is it moving at this point - it is moving as fast as it can possibly go." (Ian Stewart, "The Magical Maze: Seeing the world through mathematical eyes", 1997)

"These three insights - the network pattern, the flow of energy, and the nutrient cycles—are essential to the new scientific conception of life. Scientists have formulated them in complicated technical language. They speak of 'autopoietic networks', 'dissipative structures', and 'catalytic cycles'. But the basic phenomena described by those technical terms are the web of life, the flow of energy, and the cycles of nature." (Fritjof Capra," Turn, Turn, Turn: Understanding Nature’s Cycles", 1997)

"Complex systems operate under conditions far from equilibrium. Complex systems need a constant flow of energy to change, evolve and survive as complex entities. Equilibrium, symmetry and complete stability mean death. Just as the flow, of energy is necessary to fight entropy and maintain the complex structure of the system, society can only survive as a process. It is defined not by its origins or its goals, but by what it is doing." (Paul Cilliers,"Complexity and Postmodernism: Understanding Complex Systems", 1998)

"In a closed system, the change in entropy must always be 'positive', meaning toward death. However, in open biological or social systems, entropy can be arrested and may even be transformed into negative entropy. - a process of more complete organization and enhanced ability to transform resources. Why? Because the system imports energy and resources from its environment, leading to renewal. This is why education and learning are so important, as they provide new and stimulating input" (termed neg-entropy) that can transform each of us." (Stephen G Haines, "The Managers Pocket Guide to Systems Thinking & Learning", 1998)

"There has to be a constant flow of energy to maintain the organization of the system and to ensure its survival. Equilibrium is another word for death." (Paul Cilliers, "Complexity and Postmodernism: Understanding Complex Systems", 1998)

"Mathematicians have always appreciated clever notations; but symbolism is usually seen as a tool - it's what the tool does that we really care about. Fair enough. But if we want a richer appreciation of mathematics, we should focus some of our energy on this remarkable tool - notation. Besides mathematics, poetry alone works wonders with it." (James R Brown,"Philosophy of Mathematics", 1999)

"[...] synergy is the consequence of the energy expended in creating order. It is locked up in the viable system created, be it an organism or a social system. It is at the level of the system. It is not discernible at the level of the system. It is not discernible at the level of the system’s components. Whenever the system is dismembered to examine its components, this binding energy dissipates." (J-C Spender, "Organizational Knowledge, Collective Practice and Penrose Rents", 1999)

On Energy (1970-1979)

"Self-organization can be defined as the spontaneous creation of a globally coherent pattern out of local interactions. Because of its distributed character, this organization tends to be robust, resisting perturbations. The dynamics of a self-organizing system is typically non-linear, because of circular or feedback relations between the components. Positive feedback leads to an explosive growth, which ends when all components have been absorbed into the new configuration, leaving the system in a stable, negative feedback state. Non-linear systems have in general several stable states, and this number tends to increase" (bifurcate) as an increasing input of energy pushes the system farther from its thermodynamic equilibrium." (Francis Heylighen, "The Science Of Self-Organization And Adaptivity", 1970)

"Deep in the human nature there is an almost irresistible tendency to concentrate physical and mental energy on attempts at solving problems that seem to be unsolvable." (Ragnar Frisch, "From Utopian Theory to Practical Applications", [Nobel lecture] 1970)

"Questions are the engines of intellect, the cerebral machines which convert energy to motion, and curiosity to controlled inquiry." (David H Fischer, "Historians’ Fallacies", 1970)

"Self-organization can be defined as the spontaneous creation of a globally coherent pattern out of local interactions. Because of its distributed character, this organization tends to be robust, resisting perturbations. The dynamics of a self-organizing system is typically non-linear, because of circular or feedback relations between the components. Positive feedback leads to an explosive growth, which ends when all components have been absorbed into the new configuration, leaving the system in a stable, negative feedback state. Non-linear systems have in general several stable states, and this number tends to increase" (bifurcate) as an increasing input of energy pushes the system farther from its thermodynamic equilibrium." (Francis Heylighen, "The Science Of Self-Organization And Adaptivity", 1970)

"When we know that a physical system is in equilibrium, know the environment, and know the molecular constitution, we are still very far from knowing the quantum-mechanical state that should be used to describe the system. We may conclude that the state should be one of the energy eigenstates, but which of many is still an open question. A statistical description is the best we can hope to achieve. If we supplement our knowledge with information enabling us to force an expectation value calculation of the energy to yield a specified numerical value, we are certainly better off. Nonetheless, this addition still leaves us without a determination of the probability distribution." (Ralph Baierlein, "Atoms and Information Theory: An Introduction to Statistical Mechanics", 1971)

"In an isolated system, which cannot exchange energy and matter with the surroundings, this tendency is expressed in terms of a function of the macroscopic state of the system: the entropy." (Ilya Prigogine, "Thermodynamics of Evolution", 1972)

"But metaphor is an indispensable tool of thought and expression - a characteristic of all human communication, even of that of the scientist. The conceptual models of cybernetics and the energy theories of psycho-analysis are, after all, only labeled metaphors." (Gregory Bateson, "Steps to an Ecology of Mind", 1972)

"In an isolated system, which cannot exchange energy and matter with the surroundings, this tendency is expressed in terms of a function of the macroscopic state of the system: the entropy." (Ilya Prigogine, "Thermodynamics of Evolution", 1972)

"What we mean by information - the elementary unit of information - is a difference which makes a difference, and it is able to make a difference because the neural pathways along which it travels and is continually transformed are themselves provided with energy. The pathways are ready to be triggered. We may even say that the question is already implicit in them." (Gregory Bateson, "Steps to an Ecology of Mind", 1972)

"When the phenomena of the universe are seen as linked together by cause-and-effect and energy transfer, the resulting picture is of complexly branching and interconnecting chains of causation. In certain regions of this universe" (notably organisms in environments, ecosystems, thermostats, steam engines with governors, societies, computers, and the like), these chains of causation form circuits which are closed in the sense that causal interconnection can be traced around the circuit and back through whatever position was" (arbitrarily) chosen as the starting point of the description. In such a circuit, evidently, events at any position in the circuit may be expected to have effect at all positions on the circuit at later times." (Gregory Bateson, "Steps to an Ecology of Mind", 1972)

"The universe is full of matter and force. Yet in all that force, amongst all the bulks and gravities, the rains of cosmic light, the bombardment of energy - how little spirit, how small the decimal points of intelligence." (Ray Bradbury et al, "Mars and the Mind of Man", 1973)

"In order to describe meanders, then, we can invoke a model involving scour and centrifugal force, a model that describes the uniform expenditure of energy, or a model based on probability theory. All three models describe the same phenomenon. As far as meanders are concerned, all three models happen to be interrelated - but not out of any fundamental necessity. That is to say, the cross circulation induced by centrifugal force need not necessarily result in a uniform distribution of effort or produce a path that is especially probable. In a world of limited patterns, however, the meander answers several entirely different sets of specifications, so that scour, uniform effort, and probability produce the same design." (Peter B Stevens, "Patterns in Nature", 1974)

"Life, this anti-entropy, ceaselessly reloaded with energy, is a climbing force, toward order amidst chaos, toward light, among the darkness of the indefinite, toward the mystic dream of Love, between the fire which devours itself and the silence of the Cold. Such a Nature does not accept abdication, nor skepticism." (Albert Claude, [Nobel lecture for award received] 1974)

"The analysis of turbulence in terms of probability reveals several interesting things about eddies. For instance, the average eddy moves a distance about equal to its own diameter before it generates small eddies that move, more often than not, in the opposite direction. Those smaller eddies generate still smaller eddies and the process continues until all the energy dissipates as heat through molecular motion." (Peter B Stevens, "Patterns in Nature", 1974)

"There is a distinction between physically embodied machines, whose ultimate function is to transduce energy or deliver power, and abstract machines. i.e., machines that exist only as ideas. The laws which the former embody must be a subset of the laws that govern the real world. The laws that govern the behavior of abstract machines are not necessarily so constrained. One may, for example, design an abstract machine whose internal signals are propagated among its components at speeds greater than the speed of light, in clear violation of physical law. The fact that such a machine cannot actually be built does not prohibit the exploration of its behavior." (Joseph Weizenbaum, "Computer power and human reason: From judgment to calculation" , 1976)

"The social dynamics of human history, even more than that of biological evolution, illustrate the fundamental principle of ecological evolution - that everything depends on everything else. The nine elements that we have described in societal evolution of the three families of phenotypes - the phyla of things, organizations and people, the genetic bases in knowledge operating through energy and materials to produce phenotypes, and the three bonding relations of threat, integration and exchange - all interact on each other." (Kenneth E Boulding, "Ecodynamics: A New Theory Of Societal Evolution", 1978)

"Every subatomic interaction consists of the annihilation of the original particles and the creation of new subatomic particles. The subatomic world is a continual dance of creation and annihilation, of mass changing into energy and energy changing into mass. Transient forms sparkle in and out of existence, creating a never-ending, forever newly created reality." (Gary Zukav, "The Dancing Wu Li Masters", 1979)

"The interaction between parts of mind is triggered by difference, and difference is a nonsubstantial phenomenon not located in space or time; difference is related to negentropy and entropy rather than energy." (Gregory Bateson, "Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity", 1979)

"Thus, an increase in entropy means a decrease in our ability to change thermal energy, the energy of heat, into mechanical energy. An increase of entropy means a decrease of available energy. " (John R Pierce, "An Introduction to Information Theory: Symbols, Signals and Noise", 1979)

On Energy (1960-1969)

"Science is usually understood to depict a universe of strict order and lawfulness, of rigorous economy - one whose currency is energy, convertible against a service charge into a growing common pool called entropy." (Paul A Weiss,"Organic Form: Scientific and Aesthetic Aspects", 1960)

"Entropy is a measure of the heat energy in a substance that has been lost and is no longer available for work. It is a measure of the deterioration of a system." (William B Sill & Norman Hoss" (Eds.), "Popular Science Encyclopedia of the Sciences", 1963)

"'Conservation' (the conservation law) means this […] that there is a number, which you can calculate, at one moment - and as nature undergoes its multitude of changes, this number doesn't change. That is, if you calculate again, this quantity, it'll be the same as it was before. An example is the conservation of energy: there's a quantity that you can calculate according to a certain rule, and it comes out the same answer after, no matter what happens, happens." (Richard P. Feynman, "The Great Conservation Principles", The Messenger Series of Lectures No. 3, Cornell University, 1964) 

"Social organizations are flagrantly open systems in that the input of energies and the conversion of output into further energy input consists of transactions between the organization and its environment." (Daniel Katz, "The motivational basis of organizational behavior", 1964)

"They [archetypes] are, at the same time, both images and emotions. One can speak of an archetype only when these two aspects are simultaneous. When there is merely the image, then there is simply a word picture of little consequence. But by being charged with emotion, the image gains numinosity" (or psychic energy); it becomes dynamic, and consequences of some kind must flow from it." (Carl G Jung,"Man and His Symbols", 1964)

"By squandering nuclear energy, polluting asteroids and planets, ravaging the Preserve, and leaving litter everywhere we go, we shall ruin outer space and turn it into one big dump. It is high time we came to our senses and enforced the laws. Convinced that every minute of delay is dangerous, I sound the alarm: Let us save the Universe." (Stanislaw Lem, "Let Us Save the Universe (An Open Letter from Ijon Tichy, Space Traveller", 1966)

"Higher, directed forms of energy" (e.g., mechanical, electric, chemical) are dissipated, that is, progressively converted into the lowest form of energy, i.e., undirected heat movement of molecules; chemical systems tend toward equilibria with maximum entropy; machines wear out owing to friction; in communication channels, information can only be lost by conversion of messages into noise but not vice versa, and so forth." (Ludwig von Bertalanffy, "Robots, Men and Minds", 1967)

"The general notion in communication theory is that of information. In many cases, the flow of information corresponds to a flow of energy, e. g. if light waves emitted by some objects reach the eye or a photoelectric cell, elicit some reaction of the organism or some machinery, and thus convey information." (Ludwig von Bertalanffy, "General System Theory", 1968)

On Energy (1950-1959)

"It is my thesis that the physical functioning of the living individual and the operation of some of the newer communication machines are precisely parallel in their analogous attempts to control entropy through feedback. Both of them have sensory receptors as one stage of their cycle of operation: that is, in both of them there exists a special apparatus for collecting information from the outer world at low energy levels, and for making it available in the operation of the individual or of the machine. In both cases these external messages are not taken neat, but through the internal transforming powers of the apparatus, whether it be alive or dead. The information is then turned into a new form available for the further stages of performance. In both the animal and the machine this performance is made to be effective on the outer world. In both of them, their performed action on the outer world, and not merely their intended action, is reported back to the central regulatory apparatus." (Norbert Wiener, "The Human Use of Human Beings", 1950)

"To seek not for end but for antecedents is the way of the physicist, who finds causes" in what he has learned to recognise as fundamental properties, or inseparable concomitants, or unchanging laws, of matter and of energy." (Sir D’Arcy W Thompson, "On Growth and Form", 1951)

"The 'cybernetics' of Wiener […] is the science of organization of mechanical and electrical components for stability and purposeful actions. A distinguishing feature of this new science is the total absence of considerations of energy, heat, and efficiency, which are so important in other natural sciences. In fact, the primary concern of cybernetics is on the qualitative aspects of the interrelations among the various components of a system and the synthetic behavior of the complete mechanism." (Qian Xuesen, "Engineering Cybernetics", 1954)

"The 'cybernetics' of Wiener […] is the science of organization of mechanical and electrical components for stability and purposeful actions. A distinguishing feature of this new science is the total absence of considerations of energy, heat, and efficiency, which are so important in other natural sciences. In fact, the primary concern of cybernetics is on the qualitative aspects of the interrelations among the various components of a system and the synthetic behavior of the complete mechanism." (Qian Xuesen, "Engineering Cybernetics", 1954)

"A variety of natural phenomena exhibit what is called the minimum principle. The principle is displayed where the amount of energy expended in performing a given action is the least required for its execution, where the path of a particle or wave in moving from one point to another is the shortest possible, where a motion is completed in the shortest possible time, and so on." (James R Newman, "The World of Mathematics" Vol. II, 1956)

"Cybernetics might, in fact, be defined as the study of systems that are open to energy but closed to information and control-systems that are 'information-tight'." (W Ross Ashby, "An Introduction to Cybernetics", 1956)

"In conventional statistical mechanics the energy plays a preferred role among all dynamical quantities because it is conserved both in the time development of isolated systems and in the interaction of different systems. Since, however, the principles of maximum-entropy inference are independent of any physical properties, it appears that in subjective statistical mechanics all measurable quantities may be treated on the same basis, subject to certain precautions." (Edwin T Jaynes, "Information Theory and Statistical Mechanics" I, 1956)

"But in addition to what we decide to do by way of transformation, there are certain tendencies in the way systems behave of their own volition when left to their own devices. The convenient analogy for one of these processes is found in the second law of thermodynamics: an 'ordering' process goes on, for which the name is entropy. This can be explained without technicalities as the tendency of a system to settle down to a uniform distribution of its energy. The dissipation of local pockets of high energy is measured by an increase in entropy, until at maximum entropy all is uniform. According to this model, order is more 'natural' than chaos. This is the reason why it is convenient to discuss cybernetic systems, with their self-regulating tendency to attain stability or orderliness, in terms of entropy - a term which has been taken over to name a key tool of cybernetics." (Stafford Beer, "Cybernetics and Management", 1959)

On Energy (1920-1929)

"For a modern ruler the laws of conservation and transformation of energy, when the vivifing stream takes its source, the ways it wends its course in nature, and how, under wisdom and knowledge, it may be intertwined with human destiny, instead of careering headlong to the ocean, are a study at least as pregnant with consequences to life as any lesson taught by the long unscientific history of man." (Frederick Soddy, "Science and Life", 1920)

"The history of man is dominated by, and reflects, the amount of available energy." (Frederick Soddy, "Science and Life", 1920)

"Revolution is everywhere, in everything. It is infinite. There is no final revolution, no final number. The social revolution is only one of an infinite number of numbers; the law of revolution is not a social law, but an immeasurably greater one. It is a cosmic, universal law - like the laws of the conservation of energy and of the dissipation of energy (entropy)." (Yevgeny Zamiatin, "On Literature, Revolution, Entropy, and Other Matters", 1923)

"Revolution is everywhere, in everything. It is infinite. There is no final revolution, no final number. The social revolution is only one of an infinite number of numbers; the law of revolution is not a social law, but an immeasurably greater one. It is a cosmic, universal law - like the laws of the conservation of energy and of the dissipation of energy" (entropy)." (Yevgeny Zamiatin, "On Literature, Revolution, Entropy, and Other Matters", 1923)

"[Ignorance] of the principle of conservation of energy […] does not prevent inventors without background from continually putting forward perpetual motion machines… Also, such persons undoubtedly have their exact counterparts in the fields of art, finance, education, and all other departments of human activity […] persons who are unwilling to take the time and to make the effort required to find what the known facts are before they become the champions of unsupported opinions - people who take sides first and look up facts afterward when the tendency to distort the facts to conform to the opinions has become well-nigh irresistible." (Robert A Millikan, "Evolution in Science and Religion", 1927) 

"In classical science, it was strange to find that action [...] should yet present the artificial aspect of an energy in space multiplied by a duration. As soon, however, as we realise that the fundamental continuum of the universe is one of space-time and not one of separate space and time, the reason for the importance of the seemingly artificial combination of space with time in the expression for the action receives a very simple explanation. Henceforth, action is no longer energy in a volume of space multiplied by a duration; it is simply energy in a volume of the world, that is to say, in a volume of four-dimensional space-time." (Aram D'Abro, "The Evolution of Scientific Thought from Newton to Einstein", 1927)

"An 'empty world', i. e., a homogeneous manifold at all points at which equations" (1) are satisfied, has, according to the theory, a constant Riemann curvature, and any deviation from this fundamental solution is to be directly attributed to the influence of matter or energy." (Howard P. Robertson, "On Relativistic Cosmology", 1928)

"Social organizations are flagrantly open systems in that the input of energies and the conversion of output into further energy input consists of transactions between the organization and its environment." (Daniel Katz, "The Social Psychology of Organizations", 1929)

On Energy (1900-1909)

"After seeking in vain for the construction of a perpetual motion machine, the relations were investigated which must subsist between the forces of nature if such a machine is to be impossible; and this inverted question led to the discovery of the law of the conservation of energy, which, again, explained the impossibility of perpetual motion in the sense originally intended." (David Hilbert, "Mathematische Probleme", [lecture opening] 1900)

"[...] there is a universal principle, operating in every department of nature and at every stage of evolution, which is conservative, creative and constructive. [...] I have at last fixed upon the word synergy, as the term best adapted to express its twofold character of ‘energy’ and ‘mutuality’ or the systematic and organic ‘working together’ of the antithetical forces of nature. [...] Synergy is a synthesis of work, or synthetic work, and this is what is everywhere taking place. It may be said to begin with the primary atomic collision in which mass, motion, time, and space are involved, and to find its simplest expression in the formula for force, which implies a plurality of elements, and signifies an interaction of these elements." (Lester F Ward, "Pure Sociology", 1903)

"This compromise among the contending forces of nature was effected through organization and the formation of chemical systems, which are so many reservoirs of power, this power being represented by what we call the properties of matter. These systems store up energy and expend it in work, but the work is always a collaboration or cooperation of all the competing forces involved. It is synergy." (Lester F Ward, "Pure Sociology", 1903)

"By laying down the relativity postulate from the outset, sufficient means have been created for deducing henceforth the complete series of Laws of Mechanics from the principle of conservation of energy" (and statements concerning the form of the energy) alone." (Hermann Minkowski, "The Fundamental Equations for Electromagnetic Processes in Moving Bodies", 1907)

"When we study the structure of the atom, we shall arrive at the conclusion that it is an immense reservoir of energy solely constituted by a system of imponderable elements maintained in equilibrium by the rotations, attractions and repulsions of its component parts." (Gustave Le Bon, "The Evolution of Matter", 1907)

"The motive for the study of mathematics is insight into the nature of the universe. Stars and strata, heat and electricity, the laws and processes of becoming and being, incorporate mathematical truths. If language imitates the voice of the Creator, revealing His heart, mathematics discloses His intellect, repeating the story of how things came into being. And the value of mathematics, appealing as it does to our energy and to our honor, to our desire to know the truth and thereby to live as of right in the household of God, is that it establishes us in larger and larger certainties. As literature develops emotion, understanding, and sympathy, so mathematics develops observation, imagination, and reason." (William E Chancellor,"A Theory of Motives, Ideals and Values in Education" 1907)

On Energy (1875-1899)

"In no way can we get such an overwhelming idea of the grandeur of Nature than when we consider, that in accordance with the law of the conservation of energy, throughout the Infinite, the forces are in a perfect balance, and hence the energy of a single thought may determine the motion of a universe." (Nikola Tesla, "On Light and Other High Frequency Phenomena", [Lecture delivered before the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia] 1893) 

"The man of science, who, forgetting the limits of philosophical inquiry, slides from these formulæ and symbols into what is commonly understood by materialism, seems to me to place himself on a level with the mathematician, who should mistake the x's and y's with which he works his problems for real entities - and with this further disadvantage, as compared with the mathematician, that the blunders of the latter are of no practical consequence, while the errors of systematic materialism may paralyse the energies and destroy the beauty of a life." (Thomas H Huxley, "Method and Results", 1893)

"Throughout the infinite, the forces are in a perfect balance, and hence the energy of a single thought may determine the motion of a universe." (Nikola Tesla, "The Inventions, Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla", 1894)

"We have to evolve means for obtaining energy from stores which are forever inexhaustible, to perfect methods which do not imply consumption and waste of any material whatever. I now feel sure that the realization of that idea is not far off....the possibilities of the development I refer to, namely, that of the operation of engines on any point of the earth by the energy of the medium." (Nikola Tesla, [speech] 1897)

"[…] only a part of the whole intrinsic energy of the system is capable of being converted into mechanical work by actions going on within the vessel, and without any communication with external space by the passage either of matter or of heat. This part is sometimes called the Available Energy of the system. Clausius has called the remainder of the energy, which cannot be converted into work, the Entropy of the system. We shall find it more convenient to adopt the suggestion of Professor Tait, and give the name of Entropy to the part which can be converted into mechanical work." (James C Maxwell, "Theory of Heat", 1899)

"[…] the result of the conduction and radiation of heat from one part of a system to another is to diminish the entropy of the system, or the energy, available as work, which can be obtained from the system. The energy of the system, however, is indestructible, and as it has not been removed from the system, it must remain' in it. Hence the intrinsic energy of the system, when the entropy is exhausted by thermal communication, conduction, and radiation, is equal to its original energy, and is of course greater than in the case in which the entropy is exhausted by means of the reversible engine." (James C Maxwell, "Theory of Heat", 1899)

"The Entropy of a system is the mechanical work it can perform without communication of heat, or alteration of its total volume, all transference of heat being performed by reversible engines. When the pressure and temperature of the system have become uniform the entropy is exhausted. The original energy of the system is equal to the sum of the entropy and the energy remaining in the state of uniform pressure and temperature. The entropy of a system consisting of several component systems is the same in whatever order the entropy of the parts is exhausted. It is therefore equal to the sum of the entropy of each component system, together with the entropy of the system consisting of the component systems, each with its own entropy exhausted." (James C Maxwell, "Theory of Heat", 1899)

📓On Literature: On Facts (From Fiction to Science-Fiction)

"Every fact is a logarithm; one added term ramifies it until it is thoroughly transformed. In the general aspect of things, the great lines of creation take shape and arrange themselves into groups; beneath lies the unfathomable." (Victor Hugo, "The Toilers of the Sea", 1866)

'It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." (Sir Arthur C Doyle, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", 1892)

"If the fresh facts which come to our knowledge all fit themselves into the scheme, then our hypothesis may gradually become a solution." (Arthur C Doyle, "The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge", 1908)

"The facts of life do not penetrate to the sphere in which our beliefs are cherished; as it was not they that engendered those beliefs, so they are powerless to destroy them." (Marcel Proust, "In Search of Lost Time", 1913)

"The superstitions of today are the scientific facts of tomorrow." (Hamilton Deane & John L. Balderston, "Dracula", 1927)

"The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield." (George Orwell, "In Front of Your Nose", Tribune, 1946)

"One thinks one’s something unique and wonderful at the center of the universe. But in fact one’s merely a slight delay in the ongoing march of entropy." (Aldous Huxley, "Island", 1962)

"Science fiction is, very strictly and literally, analogous to science facts. It is a convenient analog system for thinking about new scientific, social, and economic ideas - and for re-examining old ideas." (John W Campbell Jr., "Prologue to Analog", 1962)

"These dwarfs amass knowledge as others do treasure; for this reason they are called Hoarders of the Absolute. Their wisdom lies in the fact that they collect knowledge but never use it." (Stanislaw Lem, "How Erg the Self-Inducing Slew a Paleface", 1965)

"[Human] communication is rendered more complex by the use of differing sets of sound-symbols, called languages and by the fact that a given set of symbols tends to change with the passage of years to become an entirely new language." (Howard L Myers, "The Creatures of Man", 1968)

"What are the facts? Again and again and again - what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what ‘the stars foretell,’ avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable ‘verdict of history', - what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your only clue. Get the facts!" (Robert A Heinlein, "Time Enough for Love", 1973)

"Many scientists deeply involved in the exploration of the solar system (myself among them) were first turned in that direction by science fiction. And the fact that some of that science fiction was not of the highest quality is irrelevant. Ten-year-olds do not read the scientific literature." (Carl Sagan, "Broca's Brain", 1979)

"The whole fabric of the space-time continuum is not merely curved, it is in fact totally bent." (Douglas N Adams, "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe", 1980)

"The fact is that thresholds exist throughout reality, and that things on their far sides are altogether different from things on their hither sides." (Poul Anderson, "The Saturn Game", 1981)

"This is an exercise in fictional science, or science fiction, if you like that better. Not for amusement: science fiction in the service of science. Or just science, if you agree that fiction is a part of it, always was, and always will be as long as our brains are only miniscule fragments of the universe, much too small to hold all the facts of the world but not too idle to speculate about them." (Valentino Braitenberg," Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology", 1984)

"A science fiction writer is - or should be - constrained by what is, or logically might be. That can mean simple fidelity to facts (which, in science, are always more important than theories - though Lord knows the two help shape each other, undermining the convenient, complacent separation of observer and observed). To me it also means heeding the authentic, the actual and concrete. Bad fiction uses the glossy generality; good writing needs the smattering of detail, the unrelenting busy mystery of the real." (Gregory Benford, "Afterword to Exposures", [in Alien Flesh] 1986)

"In the end, each life is no more than the sum of contingent facts, a chronicle of chance intersections, of flukes, of random events that divulge nothing but their own lack of purpose." (Paul Auster, "The Locked Room", 1988)

"The rationality of our universe is best suggested by the fact that we can discover more about it from any starting point, as if it were a fabric that will unravel from any thread." (George Zebrowski, "Is Science Rational?", OMNI Magazine, 1994)

"The old knowledge had been difficult but not distressing. It had been all paradox and myth, and it had made sense. The new knowledge was all fact and reason, and it made no sense." (Ursula K Le Guin," "A Man of the People", 1995)

"Because the question for me was always whether that shape we see in our lives was there from the beginning or whether these random events are only called a pattern after the fact. Because otherwise we are nothing." (Cormac McCarthy, "All the Pretty Horses", 2010)

"Science fiction these days is only half a step ahead of science. Astrophysicists and scientists are working in the same way as science fiction writers. They’re working things out in their imagination based on the slim scientific facts that they know. Hawking imagines a black hole and then discovers the mathematics that support his theory, and new possibilities come to light. That’s the imaginative flair that scientists have to have. For me as a sci-fi writer, spinning those ideas in your mind brings you to the point where you dream in science fiction. Suddenly you think of something in the middle of the night, and it’s so vivid you don’t need to write it down because you know you’ll remember it in the morning. That’s what these books, Zero G, reflect: a vivid imagination." (William Shatner, "William Shtner on Sci-Fi, Aging and the Environment", Saturday Evening Post, [interview] 2017)

📓On Literature: On Unknown (From Fiction to Science-Fiction)

"My desire for knowledge is intermittent; but my desire to bathe my head in atmospheres unknown to my feet is perennial and constant. The highest that we can attain to is not Knowledge, but Sympathy with Intelligence. I do not know that this higher knowledge amounts to anything more definite than a novel and grand surprise on a sudden revelation of the insufficiency of all that we called Knowledge before - a discovery that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy. It is the lighting up of the mist by the sun." (Henry D Thoreau, "Walking", 1851)

"How do you attack the unknown, or defend yourself from it?" (Jules Verne, "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea", 1870)

"Sitting there on the heather, on our planetary grain, I shrank from the abysses that opened up on every side, and in the future. The silent darkness, the featureless unknown, were more dread than all the terrors that imagination had mustered." (Olaf Stapledon, "Star Maker", 1937)

"All unknowns are organically inimical to man, and homo sapiens is human in the full sense of the word only when his grammar is entirely free of question marks." (Yevgeny Zamiatin, "We", 1924)

"The unknown is a terrible place. There are monsters out there." (Philip K Dick, "Solar Lottery", 1955)

"There are people who run at the sight of the unknown, others who advance to meet it." (Fredric Brown, "Puppet Show", 1962)

"The exploration of the unknown is always a fraud." (James Gunn, "Station in Space", 1958)

"He knew the unknown. It was beyond all comprehension and Guy thought that it was no more than a set of words: a black, empty World preceding the appearance of the World Light; a dead, icy World when the World Light was extinguished; an endless Wasteland with many World Lights. No one could explain what this meant." (Arkady Strugatsky &Boris Strugatsky, "Prisoners of Power", 1969)

"The unknown is always worse than the known." (Eando Binder, "Menace of the Saucers", 1969)

"What are the facts? Again and again and again - what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what ‘the stars foretell,’ avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable ‘verdict of history', - what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your only clue. Get the facts!" (Robert A Heinlein, "Time Enough for Love", 1973)

"An infinity of universes swim in superspace, all passing through their own cycles of birth and death; some are novel, others repetitious; some produce macrolife, others do not; still others are lifeless. In time, macrolife will attempt to reach out from its cycles to other space-time bubbles, perhaps even to past cycles, which leave their echoes in superspace, and might be reached. In all these ambitions, only the ultimate pattern of development is unknown, drawing macrolife toward some future transformation still beyond its view. There are times when the oldest macrolife senses that vaster intelligences are peering in at it from some great beyond [...]" (George Zebrowski, "Macrolife: A Mobile Utopia", 1979)

"So together they left the office and walked into the uncertainty of the rest of their lives. That, in the final analysis, is the great adventure in which each of us takes part; what more courageous thing is there, after all, than facing the unknown we all share, the danger and joy that awaits us in the unread pages of the Book of the Future [...]" (George Alec Effinger," The World of Pez Pavilion: Preliminary to the Groundbreaking Ceremony", 1983)

"The Sioux had outlived their way of life, had turned it over to the white technicians, who would map everything. That was what he most disliked about them: that they sought to know all things, and did not realize that a forest without dark places has value only to the woodcutter." (Jack McDevitt, "Ancient Shores", 1996)

"'Do you really believe in physics?'  'I dont know what that means. Physics tries to draw a numerical picture of the world. I dont know that it actually explains anything. You cant illustrate the unknown. Whatever that might mean.'" (Cormac McCarthy, "Stella Maris", 2022)