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Entropy production delusion

It is common in knowledgeable circles to talk about the development of civilization in terms of entropy discussion. The term 'entropy...

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Complexity of civilization

The rapidly increasing complexity of the operations of our civilization has both beneficial and detrimental influence on the decisions made by people (the Paras) and on what happens in the operation of the aging technological systems of Tityas and the enduring natural systems of Gaia. The increase in complexity results in a decrease in resilience.

Many aged people live in high rise apartments with installed heating and air conditioning systems making life comfortable all the year round - until failure of the electrical grid.Going up and down the stairs because the elevators are out would be beyond them! Many people living in New York found this out the hard way when Super Storm hit.

Cars now have many features that ease travel but reduce the ability of the owner to fix problems.

 iPods have had the beneficial effect for many people of improving their access to information but in many instances some of the information is conflicting so confusing to the user. And iPods are made of irreplaceable material, age and need electricity.So those people addicted to their use will suffer withdrawal problems in due course.

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Power of money

Money flow currently powers the operation of economies. That is an indisputable fact. Knowledgeable people have pointed out for many years that the economic growth promoted by the flow of money is an unsustainable materialistic process. But that dose of reality decrying the delusion that money flow creates progress when the ecological cost is not taken into account has had very little impact on operations to this stage. Money still powers economic growth despite the booms and busts. Society is not prepared to allow the dose of reality to spoil the materialistic benefits of economic growth. Wise use of the remaining natural material resources is not on the agenda of those who have the leverage of money backing.

An aged billionaire learned that his health problem was due to an ailing kidney. He paid a large amount for a kidney replacement operation. That gave him another year of life!

If society should unexpectedly absorb the dose of reality, the power of money can help ease the inevitable powering down by society as natural resources become beyond reach and the existing irrevocably infrastructure ages. The belief that economic growth was sustainable will have died as people realize that nature bats last.  .

Friday, March 13, 2015

Difference between nenergy and senergy

The irrevocable physical properties of energy flow doing (positive) work on systems made of materials are summed up by the Laws of Thermodynamics. The associated action of friction doing negative work is common knowledge but not formally recognized by stated laws.
However, it is fascinating that there is no widespread recognition that two types of energy flow operate in civilization. They are the natural one and the synthetic one. They have the same operating characteristics described above but they differ in the consequences.
The natural energy (nenergy) flow has solar energy input, does such work as producing growth in trees (and humans) and ends up as being radiated out into space. This energy is often stored for a short period as chemical energy and it is generally not powerful. There are exceptions such as cyclones but they do not affect the principle. The natural systems on which they do work recycle or reproduce naturally so it it the sustainable process that has been going on for many years.This essentially energy income
The synthetic energy (senergy) flow uses past solar energy input stored for a long time as concentrated chemical energy in fossil fuels and does positive work in technological systems that age and do not reproduce naturally and generally do not recycle. This energy flow is generally very powerful in providing civilization with temporary goods, services and infrastructure. It is an unsustainable process because it is depleting the stock of stored energy. It is energy capital and its flow will gradually slow down in coming years as the stocks become beyond reach.