I always find myself confused about how to think about entropy. The article says that gravity is an entropic force. I understand that to mean that it not reducible to lower level forces but to be reducible (if that term applies) to statistical thermodynamics.
Just as there are a lot more ways that a gas can be more or less uniformly distributed in a closed area than the ways it could be bunched up in a corner -- and hence we tend to find it more or less uniformly distributed -- gravity according to this analysis is like the universe in a more uniformly distributed state rather than a more unusual state. There is no force that causes it. It is a statistical phenomenon. In other words, gravitational attraction is like whatever it is that pushes a gas bunched up in a corner to become more uniformly distributed. But the whatever-it-is in the case of a gas is nothing but statistical phenomena. There are no forces involved even though from a naive point of view it may appear that there is a force that is pushing the gas to be spread out. -- Russ On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 10:36 AM, Nicholas Thompson < nickthomp...@earthlink.net> wrote: > Pamela, > > I got all ready to be huffy about the article, but then found it really > interesting. At risk of going all professorial on you, I want to examine > your expression, "no more than a". The most important phenomena that we > experience are all emergents. If you hit me with a rock, the hardness and > edginess of the rock that collapses my skull, are all emergents. > > So, then what the dickens is meant by "no more than"? I think it means > SOMETHING and would like to explore it further with you (and others on the > list.) "Reduction" means to some to account for a phenomenon n terms of > events or objects that are smaller than the phenomenon itself. Reduction > is always to break a process or an object into its parts. To others, > "reduction" means to explain a phenomenon by reference to a more familiar > or well understood phenomenon. This latter understanding of reduction > opens the possibility for a reduction to refer to a process that is larger > or more inclusive than the process it reduces, what I would call an > up-reduction, to distinguish it from the "breaking-into-parts" sort of > reduction. It sounds to me that the account of gravity being offered in > this article is a case of up reduction in that sense. > > I hope others will read the article and comment, because i wasnt sure I > understood it. > > All the best, > > Nick > > > > Nicholas S. Thompson > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology, > Clark University (nthomp...@clarku.edu) > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/<http://home.earthlink.net/%7Enickthompson/naturaldesigns/> > http://www.cusf.org [City University of Santa Fe] > > > > > > [Original Message] > > From: Pamela McCorduck <pam...@well.com> > > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group < > friam@redfish.com> > > Date: 7/13/2010 12:39:41 PM > > Subject: [FRIAM] Gravity as an emergent phenomenon > > > > Great food for thought. Gravity might be no more than an emergent > phenomenon: > > > > > > > > http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/science/13gravity.html?_r=1&partner=rss&em > c=rss<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/science/13gravity.html?_r=1&partner=rss&em%0Ac=rss> > > > > > > > > > > > > "God keep me from ever completing anything. This whole book is but a > draft--nay, but the draft of a draft. Oh, Time, Strength, Cash, and > Patience!" > > > > Melville, "Moby Dick" > > > > > > ============================================================ > > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >
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