Information, Entropy, Life, and the Universe

Information, Entropy, Life, and the Universe PDF Author: Arieh Ben-Naim
Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company
ISBN: 9789814651677
Category : Entropy
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Entropy is commonly interpreted as a measure of disorder. This interpretation has caused a great amount of "disorder" in the literature.This book explains what information theory is and how it is related to thermodynamic entropy. Then it examines the application of these concepts to the question of "What is life?" and whether or not they can be applied to the entire universe.

The Biggest Ideas in the Universe

The Biggest Ideas in the Universe PDF Author: Sean Carroll
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0593186583
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 305

Book Description
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Most appealing... technical accuracy and lightness of tone... Impeccable.”—Wall Street Journal “A porthole into another world.”—Scientific American “Brings science dissemination to a new level.”—Science The most trusted explainer of the most mind-boggling concepts pulls back the veil of mystery that has too long cloaked the most valuable building blocks of modern science. Sean Carroll, with his genius for making complex notions entertaining, presents in his uniquely lucid voice the fundamental ideas informing the modern physics of reality. Physics offers deep insights into the workings of the universe but those insights come in the form of equations that often look like gobbledygook. Sean Carroll shows that they are really like meaningful poems that can help us fly over sierras to discover a miraculous multidimensional landscape alive with radiant giants, warped space-time, and bewilderingly powerful forces. High school calculus is itself a centuries-old marvel as worthy of our gaze as the Mona Lisa. And it may come as a surprise the extent to which all our most cutting-edge ideas about black holes are built on the math calculus enables. No one else could so smoothly guide readers toward grasping the very equation Einstein used to describe his theory of general relativity. In the tradition of the legendary Richard Feynman lectures presented sixty years ago, this book is an inspiring, dazzling introduction to a way of seeing that will resonate across cultural and generational boundaries for many years to come.

Every Life Is on Fire

Every Life Is on Fire PDF Author: Jeremy England
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 1541699009
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 185

Book Description
A preeminent physicist unveils a field-defining theory of the origins and purpose of life. Why are we alive? Most things in the universe aren't. And everything that is alive traces back to things that, puzzlingly, weren't. For centuries, the scientific question of life's origins has confounded us. But in Every Life Is on Fire, physicist Jeremy England argues that the answer has been under our noses the whole time, deep within the laws of thermodynamics. England explains how, counterintuitively, the very same forces that tend to tear things apart assembled the first living systems. But how life began isn't just a scientific question. We ask it because we want to know what it really means to be alive. So England, an ordained rabbi, uses his theory to examine how, if at all, science helps us find purpose in a vast and mysterious universe. In the tradition of Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, Every Life Is on Fire is a profound testament to how something can come from nothing.

The Order of Time

The Order of Time PDF Author: Carlo Rovelli
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735216118
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Book Description
One of TIME’s Ten Best Nonfiction Books of the Decade "Meet the new Stephen Hawking . . . The Order of Time is a dazzling book." --The Sunday Times From the bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, Reality Is Not What It Seems, Helgoland, and Anaximander comes a concise, elegant exploration of time. Why do we remember the past and not the future? What does it mean for time to "flow"? Do we exist in time or does time exist in us? In lyric, accessible prose, Carlo Rovelli invites us to consider questions about the nature of time that continue to puzzle physicists and philosophers alike. For most readers this is unfamiliar terrain. We all experience time, but the more scientists learn about it, the more mysterious it remains. We think of it as uniform and universal, moving steadily from past to future, measured by clocks. Rovelli tears down these assumptions one by one, revealing a strange universe where at the most fundamental level time disappears. He explains how the theory of quantum gravity attempts to understand and give meaning to the resulting extreme landscape of this timeless world. Weaving together ideas from philosophy, science and literature, he suggests that our perception of the flow of time depends on our perspective, better understood starting from the structure of our brain and emotions than from the physical universe. Already a bestseller in Italy, and written with the poetic vitality that made Seven Brief Lessons on Physics so appealing, The Order of Time offers a profoundly intelligent, culturally rich, novel appreciation of the mysteries of time.

The Four Laws That Do Not Drive The Universe

The Four Laws That Do Not Drive The Universe PDF Author: Arieh Ben-Naim
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9813223472
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 202

Book Description
This book provides a clear and mystery-free presentation of the central concepts in thermodynamics — probability, entropy, Helmholtz energy and Gibbs energy. It presents the concepts of entropy, free energy and various formulations of the Second Law in a friendly, simple language. It is devoid of all kinds of fancy and pompous statements made by authors of popular science books who write on this subject. The book focuses on the Four Laws of Thermodynamics. As it is said in the dedication page, this book is addressed to readers who might have already been exposed to Atkins' book having a similar title. It challenges both the title, and the contents of Atkins' book, Four Laws That Drive The Universe. One can glean from the title of this new book that the author's views are diametrically opposed to the views of Atkins. The book is addressed to any curious and intelligent reader. It aims to tickle, and hopefully to satisfy your curiosity. It also aims to challenge your gray matter, and to enrich your knowledge by telling you some facts and ideas regarding the Four Laws of Thermodynamics.

From Eternity to Here

From Eternity to Here PDF Author: Sean Carroll
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0452296544
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 466

Book Description
"An accessible and engaging exploration of the mysteries of time." -Brian Greene, author of The Elegant Universe Twenty years ago, Stephen Hawking tried to explain time by understanding the Big Bang. Now, Sean Carroll says we need to be more ambitious. One of the leading theoretical physicists of his generation, Carroll delivers a dazzling and paradigm-shifting theory of time's arrow that embraces subjects from entropy to quantum mechanics to time travel to information theory and the meaning of life. From Eternity to Here is no less than the next step toward understanding how we came to exist, and a fantastically approachable read that will appeal to a broad audience of armchair physicists, and anyone who ponders the nature of our world.

Something Deeply Hidden

Something Deeply Hidden PDF Author: Sean Carroll
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1524743038
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 369

Book Description
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER As you read these words, copies of you are being created. Sean Carroll, theoretical physicist and one of this world’s most celebrated writers on science, rewrites the history of twentieth-century physics. Already hailed as a masterpiece, Something Deeply Hidden shows for the first time that facing up to the essential puzzle of quantum mechanics utterly transforms how we think about space and time. His reconciling of quantum mechanics with Einstein’s theory of relativity changes, well, everything. Most physicists haven’t even recognized the uncomfortable truth: Physics has been in crisis since 1927. Quantum mechanics has always had obvious gaps—which have come to be simply ignored. Science popularizers keep telling us how weird it is, how impossible it is to understand. Academics discourage students from working on the "dead end" of quantum foundations. Putting his professional reputation on the line with this audacious yet entirely reasonable book, Carroll says that the crisis can now come to an end. We just have to accept that there is more than one of us in the universe. There are many, many Sean Carrolls. Many of every one of us. Copies of you are generated thousands of times per second. The Many-Worlds theory of quantum behavior says that every time there is a quantum event, a world splits off with everything in it the same, except in that other world the quantum event didn't happen. Step-by-step in Carroll's uniquely lucid way, he tackles the major objections to this otherworldly revelation until his case is inescapably established. Rarely does a book so fully reorganize how we think about our place in the universe. We are on the threshold of a new understanding—of where we are in the cosmos, and what we are made of.

Entropy and Information

Entropy and Information PDF Author: Paralternativecelsus
Publisher: Strategic Book Publishing
ISBN: 9781618971982
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 348

Book Description
Entropy and Information is a science/philosophical book. The author considers the function Entropy as the tool of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, subsequently applicable to link different areas. Entropy and Information: Unveiling the Mysterious Stuff Permeating the Universe is both holistic and interdisciplinary. I think it brings a new scope on how to face reality. It starts with basic concepts for a rationale on Entropy. Entropy is placed in context with Information Theory, a great milestone contributed by Shannon in 1948. Basically, Entropy gives us estimation on how elements or constituents interrelate in systems, the author says. As principles, entropy and information intimately deal with the human mind. Thus they are paramount in evolution, stupidity, memetics, societies and cultures. The final parts of the book are reflections and criticisms of so-called modern medicine, particularly for its uncouth business orientation. This book fills a gap in interdisciplinary science and is sure to be highly valued by a vast array of readers. Entropy, an old and poorly understood natural function, can be applied to many dimensional scenarios and areas of knowledge.About the Author: Paralternativecelus is an M.D. and a freelance philosopher interested in the process of knowledge and diagnosis. He is constantly challenging the status quo of medicine. For him, medicine is far from being a science, as some people may contrarily believe. Physical principles must be incorporated into health for breakthroughs to happen. Publisher's website: http: //sbpra.com/Paralternativecelsu

What Technology Wants

What Technology Wants PDF Author: Kevin Kelly
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143120174
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 417

Book Description
From the author of the New York Times bestseller The Inevitable— a sweeping vision of technology as a living force that can expand our individual potential In this provocative book, one of today's most respected thinkers turns the conversation about technology on its head by viewing technology as a natural system, an extension of biological evolution. By mapping the behavior of life, we paradoxically get a glimpse at where technology is headed-or "what it wants." Kevin Kelly offers a dozen trajectories in the coming decades for this near-living system. And as we align ourselves with technology's agenda, we can capture its colossal potential. This visionary and optimistic book explores how technology gives our lives greater meaning and is a must-read for anyone curious about the future.

The Amazing Journey of Reason

The Amazing Journey of Reason PDF Author: Mario Alemi
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030259625
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 125

Book Description
This Open Access book explores questions such as why and how did the first biological cells appear? And then complex organisms, brains, societies and –now– connected human societies? Physicists have good models for describing the evolution of the universe since the Big Bang, but can we apply the same concepts to the evolution of aggregated matter –living matter included? The Amazing Journey analyzes the latest results in chemistry, biology, neuroscience, anthropology and sociology under the light of the evolution of intelligence, seen as the ability of processing information. The main strength of this book is using just two concepts used in physics –information and energy– to explain: The emergence and evolution of life: procaryotes, eukaryotes and complex organisms The emergence and evolution of the brain The emergence and evolution of societies (human and not) Possible evolution of our "internet society" and the role that Artificial Intelligence is playing
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