Maxwell's Demon Thermodynamics

[Celtaur]

Maxwell's Demon Converts Information into Energy

For the first time, scientists have converted information into pure energy, experimentally verifying a thought experiment first proposed 150 years ago.

The idea was originally formulated by physicist James Clerk Maxwell, but it gained controversy because it appeared to violate the second law of thermodynamics. Put in experimental terms, this law states that when hot and cold water are mixed, they will eventually reach an equilibrium middling temperature.

Maxwell proposed that a hypothetical being (later dubbed Maxwell's demon) could separate the water into two compartments and reverse the process, isolating hot molecules from cold by letting only the hotter-than-average through a trap-door between the compartments.

Because mixed water is considered more disordered (i.e. of higher entropy) than separated water, the demon has converted a system from a state of disorder to a state of order, using only information (the knowledge of which molecules were hot and cold). Live Science

[bsbray]

I think I've seen this somewhere else, but don't mind seeing it again. This is good for physics. The old box is having holes ripped through it.

I've believed/realized for a while now that entropy can't be running amok unchecked throughout the universe. Entropy says that everything is always breaking down and losing energy, but life itself has the opposite tendency, to reorganize things and animate inanimate materials. Maybe nothing is being created or destroyed, but life still plays the opposite role to entropy, and therefore balances it.

[Haruth]

Really enjoyed that video. Thanks for posting.

bsbray - loved your observation of the shaking of the box Happening in all sorts of areas, and I'm a little surprised that there aren't material scientists working on some membrane which would have the effect of the "demon".

Been wondering though about your assertion that life puts energy into the system. Isn't it the case that the energy consumption to maintain life, particularly the higher orders, far exceeds the energy produced by the life form? Consider the ecological pyramid below:

(At this point I should confess that biology was never my strong point... so maybe I'm missing something basic here?)

The producer's energy is coming, mainly from sunlight. The sun is losing energy at a much greater rate than the living producers can assimilate what little of it reaches the earth. Hence, despite the apparent abundance of life, the system as a whole continues to lose energy? Wouldn't this be the same no matter where you were in the Universe?

[bsbray]

The producer's energy is coming, mainly from sunlight. The sun is losing energy at a much greater rate than the living producers can assimilate what little of it reaches the earth. Hence, despite the apparent abundance of life, the system as a whole continues to lose energy? Wouldn't this be the same no matter where you were in the Universe?

Before the first atom bomb was detonated, scientists thought the Sun consisted of some kind of flammable gas that was simply "on fire." Then the atom bomb came along and they had a much more appealing and convenient explanation, and that's what scientists have assumed since then. Other scientists are trying to overthrow that model again today with a model that emphasizes all the electromagnetic activity of the Sun, trying to redefine the Sun in terms of electromagnetism and plasmas. I enjoy considering all the scientific theories but I try not to miss the forest for the trees either, like they say, and I really see the Sun as a spiritual being in addition to being a solely material provider, and very much alive in its own right.

"Something" had to come from "nothing" at some point for anything to exist at all, for some "big bang" to have spontaneously emerged out of some multi-dimensional framework or whatever the current theory is. I don't think anything is really ever created or destroyed though, just that there is always a very delicate balancing act to entropy going on. For all the energy that's ever lost, there's always some order and intelligence that can come along and make up for it, so that we're never prevented from moving forward.

Really I think that everything in existence is only 1 thing ("all is one," etc etc), and it only appears as many things because it's playing with itself. So really "something" and "nothing" are just two sides of the same illusive thing too, just like the stuff dreams seem to be made of, so it's really no trouble or paradox making "something" out of "nothing," because they were already the same thing and always have been. We humans make something out of nothing all the time when we're being creative in the arts or sciences, or any time a new idea is introduced. So we're co-creators and of course part of this "everything" that is really 1 thing too.

Sorry if I'm confusing. I must be in a confusing mood today, though those really are my thoughts as far as entropy and all that.