Thread: Thermodynamics may explain economic evolution

Interesting way to look at it. I'd be curious to hear what the regulars here think of it. --FY http://www.physorg.com/news176365278.html Second Law of Thermodynamics May Explain Economic Evolution As Annila and Salthe explain in their study published in Entropy, the second law of thermodynamics was originally formulated to describe the flow of heat from hot to cold areas. However, when formulated as an equation of motion, the second law...

Interesting theory. When I was taking my MBA program, I wrote a term paper decribing the use of an analog computer (RLC circuits with volt and amp meters) to model the money supply. I figured the second order differential equasions were the same, so the results should be predictive. The same equasions also aply to thermodynamics (and a number of other physical disciplines such ad fluid dynamics, statics and so forth). While I don't think...

. While I don't think anyone used the concept, sounds just like grading poetry when they don't understand, they'll never admit it, so they'll just give an A and hope you don't call them out on it

While economic activities are traditionally viewed as being motivated by profit, Annila and Salthe argue that the ultimate motivation of economic activities is not to maximize profit or productivity, but rather to disperse energy. From this perspective, a growing economy consists of entities (e.g. products, labor, etc.) that are assigned an energy density resulting from their individual production processes. These density differences are the...

The laws of Thermodynamics, as explained by my thermo professor many years ago, especially as it may apply to financial systems: Zeroth: You must play the game. First: You can't win. Second: You can't break even. Third: You can't quit the game. Personally, I think Chaos Theory is more appropriate.

It matches up well with my notion that money represents work and should be BASED on work, which I have posted now and again every year for half a decade :-) $1 = n x 1KWH. I don't know where you'd set n, but you are limited to how much money you can actually use by the generation capacity of the country. Since "wealth" has always been control of work equivalents in my view, this all fits very nicely for me. I love...