A very boring article. The thesis is potentially interesting, but fails to get any real attention from the author. The author proposes to investigate the negati

A very boring article. The thesis is potentially interesting, but fails to get any real attention from the author. The author proposes to investigate the negative social and political consequences of the framing of the 2nd law of thermodynamics, but puts no actual effort towards such an investigation. Kelvin and Darwin are presented as equally consequent of a Victorian worldview, whereas they seem to propose opposing tendencies. Darwin describes a world of growth, and creation ex nihilo, whereas Kelvin describes a world of cooling and decay. The social implications of the Darwinian thesis seem to involve preferencing the creators and inventors of the world, while accepting the loss of those who stagnate as not only inevitable, but necessary towards producing growth. Kelvin's theory states that there is a limited amount of free energy in the world, which we might take to imply that those with a disproportionate share of resources are hoarding them and keeping them away from others. This seems to promote a world of redistribution and socialization. An agrarian worldview would seem to preference a hotter world, since plants rely on a high outside temperature to grow. We also know that photosynthesis can be performed more efficiently at high CO2 concentrations. An entropic worldview prefers colder external temperature, since efficiency of a heat engine increases with temperature difference. I've seen proposed, as a resolution to the fermi paradox, that certain civilizations are waiting for the universe to cool down in order to perform computations more efficiently. Such a proposal could only arise out of a worldview informed by entropy, of waiting in order to more efficiently use the finite resources we have available. The evolutionary worldview, by way of contrast, suggests that waiting entails to stagnation, and ultimately destruction, that success goes to whoever is most nimble. I would percieve a congruency between a worldview informed by entropy and modern liberalism, which seems to heavily favour the principles of waiting and of redistribution. Conservatism seems more in favour of an evolutionary worldview, wherever it believes that someone well off deserves what they have, or wherever it perceives a competition between groups. It should be clear that both worldviews have some relation with the real world, that both decay and growth are happening around us constantly. I, personally, would highlight the evolutionary thesis as more hopeful, in that it imagines still greater things to come, rather than the slow decay characteristic of the entropic model. I would also point out it likely has stronger relevance for the foreseeable future, since the death of the sun, much less of the universe, remains an inordinately long way off still. I would therefore tend to agree with the thesis of the author, though for none of the reasons they set out to defend.