Thermodynamics 2.0 | 2022 Program: Sessions and Abstracts
Mon - Wed, July 18 - July 20 , 2022 , Boone, North Carolina
Session T14: Constructal Law and Applications
10:45-12:00. Wednesday July 20, 2022
Chair: Umit Gunes
Title: Theory of Constructal Infonimics #2: The Essential Connection between Thermodynamics and Information as the World Moves to a Connected Future
Bio-sketch
In the 1980s, tasked with explaining the nature of interactive information to corporate CEOs, I hypothesized the equivalence between information and thermodynamics: matter and energy is mirrored in information theory as storage and transmission. Subsequently, I established the practical field of infonomics as the study and application of how humans use and value information, which, through my teaching career, contributed to the archetypical design of the iPhone and iPad in 2007. With that career complete, I returned to studying the thermodynamics of information flows both in neurobiology and using the Constructal Law articulated by Professor Adrian Bejan at Duke University. This led to a physics description of how all life forms use thermodynamics and information to amplify energy without violating the Second Law. In 2017, I first presented and published the Theory of Constructal Infonomics in Bucharest, Romania. Currently, my private laboratory 9 degrees North in a volcanic rainforest in Panama is focused on exploiting the thermodynamic design of neural systems to vastly improve the exchange of information with technology like the smartphone, in order to learn, think and do faster and better. During the Covid event, we took the opportunity to entirely rethink the design of the facemask, resulting in Facemask 2.0, along with a new global distributed manufacturing and non-patent-based innovation model.
Author(s):
(Institute for Constructal Infonomics, California, United States)
Abstract:T14.129
Abstract
This proposed paper builds on the Theory of Constructal Infonomics [1], first presented in Bucharest, Romania in 2017 and published in the Proceedings of the Romanian Academy of Sciences. Through a better understanding of the essential thermodynamic/information architecture that motivates and defines success for all life forms, we may better understand, predict and control the evolution of our future as a species.
The Theory of Constructal Infonomics describes how the thermodynamic/information architecture of life shapes and drives all life forms, from simple bacteria to sexual reproducers to extended “virtual” life forms, including families, and tribes, religions, nation-states, and social media. It explains how stored energy, including material wealth and its information equivalent, knowledge, are the essential elements that all organisms must invest, and from those investments, achieve an amplified energetic return in order to survive the Second Law. In addition, it demonstrates that hierarchical complex organisms share the precise motivation as each of their constituent dependent organisms. E.g., the motivation of a human being is identical to the motivation of every cell in its body, including all the gut bacteria, viruses, etc. Individual humans carry the same survival motivation into their roles as dependent organisms within larger, sometimes nested, virtual life forms, e.g., families, companies, nations. It defines the fundamental requirements for the origin of life and applies empirically to all life forms here on Earth and hypothetically, at least for now, throughout the universe.
With that background, the paper will then focus on applying the Theory to the current world situation as a case study. Power in the societal sense is the product of both thermodynamics (material wealth and energy flows) and information (knowledge and information flows). We are now experiencing the shift from industrial revolution high-thermodynamic, low-information wealth and power accumulation to distributed-thermodynamic, high-information, global societies and organizations. Notably, some nation-states that depend on brute physical dominance and suppression of information to build their wealth find it difficult to realize a positive return for their efforts in the modern co-dependent world. The discussion will focus on:
– The impact of global, real-time communication (e.g. Web 3.0, Metaverse, Crypto, social media)
– The diminishing role of nation-states
– The rise of transnational corporate power
– The power of individuals cooperating globally
– The rise of non-state actors, e.g., Anonymous
Despite shifting forms and forces, human progress is driven by the thermodynamic calculus of using information to amplify energy and evade the Second Law. By understanding this fundamental architecture of life, we can better predict and control the evolution of our future as a species or the planet.
Keywords: Information theory, origin of life, social media, power, wealth, knowledge
References:
[1] Mark Heyer, “The Constructal Theory of Information.” Proceedings of the Romanian Academy Series A-Mathematics Physics Technical Sciences Information Science 19 (2018): 178-182.