olegt
Posts: 1405
Joined: Dec. 2006
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niwrad needs to crack a textbook on thermodynamics. Pronto. | Quote | | Not true. Thermodynamics does speak a lot about “an intelligent source of organization”. What is “Maxwell’s demon” (a fundamental concept in thermodynamics) but “an intelligent source of organization”? Bill Dembski wrote: “It is CSI that enables Maxwell’s demon to outsmart a thermodynamic system tending toward thermal equilibrium” (”Intelligent Design”, 6.1). So also from this viewpoint thermodynamics perfectly agrees with ID theory. When thermodynamics says that Maxwell’s demon is the only way to systematically decrease entropy in a system it states exactly the same thing of ID theory when says that intelligence is the only source of CSI. |
Let me count the errors.
1. Maxwell's demon is not a fundamental concept of thermodynamics.* Like Dawkins's weasel, it's just a toy model used to make a point. I taught gradual statistical physics last spring and I did not even mention the demon.
2. Leó Szilárd showed that any decrease of entropy the demon produces in the system will be more than offset by an increase in demon's own entropy. So the total amount of entropy increases.
3. Intelligent beings that we observe (i.e. humans) produce so much entropy through perspiration alone that it will dwarf any amount of information (measured in the same units) that they can physically produce. One kcal of heat at room temperature is equivalent to 1.5 trillion trillion (that's 1.5 x 1024) bits of entropy.
*It was introduced in statistical physics, actually, but that's a minor point.
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