RE: [pf] entropy.

by David MacClement

11 December 2000 21:04 UTC

At 12:21 11/12/2000 -0800, David A wrote:
>While it is true that entropy can be interpreted as a measure 
>of order, entropy invariably increases (or stays the same) only 
>in isolated systems. ...

· I hope the rest of you don't take David A's comments as: "end of story".

· For one thing, I see the comments as dealing with the puzzling examples
in the last half of my post, and mainly I believe he's addressing the
question of "being sure": being able to measure the entropy and being sure
it is increasing or staying the same.

· /I/ don't think entropy (either the amount, known or not, or the concept)
disappears as soon as some energy goes in or out of a bounded system.

· So I'm still interested in other people's ideas, at least on what I said
in the first half of the note. I admit that applying one aspect of entropy
to philosophy may be a mistake (though I don't think so), but doing that
has brought such a surprising amount of clarity to my thinking that I
thought others might want to consider it too.

David.
(David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz