Of Time, Entropy and Consciousness

My fascination with entropy began during my Freshman year, when a colleague suggested me to read a book written by the Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine . For some reason unknown to me, the Belgian-Russian physicist was awarded the honorary citizenship of my hometown - an honour later awarder to another Nobel laureate, Gerard 't Hooft - so maybe …

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A Little Bit of Entropy

I'm reading a very interesting book written by Seth Lloyd called "Programming the Universe: a quantum computer scientist takes on the Cosmos". Highly recommended! I enjoyed in particular how entropy is compared to a spreading disease: a disease of ignorance. What is it all about? Let me explain briefly. From statistical mechanics, entropy is a measure …

A Brief History of Entropy pt. 3 – Disorder

Still, something was just not right. Dalton's atomic theory was ridiculed by the Academics who refused to believe in the existence of such tiny particles, impossible to disintegrate and impossible to observe. Or are they? A Checkmate to Caloric Fluid What is heat, exactly? In 1777 Antoine Lavoisier proposed the idea, based on his experimental results, …

A Brief History of Entropy pt. 2 – Talk About the Revolutions

Around 1750 Europe and especially England saw the unfolding of the so-called first industrial revolution. Engineers learned how to build mechanical machines powered by steam, a thing that in the Ancient Greece was seen just as a recreational pastime. Now those steam engines were used to make clothes, turn mills and possibly to move people. …