5 ms·

Maxwell’s Demon Continues to Startle Scientists

20 points by dnetesn 6y ago

hasmanean 6y ago
In other words Maxwell’s demon requires an input of energy to reverse entropy locally. In other words Maxwell’s demon is not a free energy machine, but a heat pump. It’s an air conditioner. It can make Hell freeze over, but only if it consumes all the resources of Paradise and transforms it into Hell.
dmix 6y ago
Why was it a demon? To make it more interest or highlight the dilemma?
- WJW 6y ago
  Back in Maxwells time the idea of a machine that could make "intelligent" decisions was not very developed and neither was the miniaturisation of technology that we know today. So to not let his thought experiment get sidetracked by questions of "how would you actually build such a machine" he just called it a demon and could then focus on the thermodynamic properties of the system. These days we would probably call it a quantum device or something.
- freshair 6y ago
  > 2. A neutral supernatural spirit. > An hypothetical entity with special abilities postulated for the sake of a thought experiment in philosophy or physics. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/demon#Noun https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/demon#Noun
  - NovemberWhiskey 6y ago
    See also, for example, Laplace's demon.
Nomentatus 6y ago
Earlier listing and discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26908886 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26908886
gremlinsinc 6y ago
Could this have bearing on Mandela Effects? I mean if you rule out "false memory" for a specific case or two. I.e. you have seen a flip/flop of one within a week and it's so huge you can't possibly deny it's existence. (I won't try to convince anyone but that's exactly what I experienced...)... Say for instance there's billions of realities and they're all like bubbles but also venn diagrams that sort of intersect at commonality, now say the multi-verse isn't infinite, say there's some entropy or finite size... if we're nearing entropy could the bubbles "pop" causing realities to merge into one? Seems this would be a scientific way to possibly describe how two realities could merge and why people indeed have different memories of those realities.
ryandvm 6y ago
Not Maxwell's Demon, but the closest physical approximation is probably the Hilsch Vortex tube: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_tube https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_tube Pretty cool. (Har har)

20 points by dnetesn 6y ago

In other words Maxwell’s demon requires an input of energy to reverse entropy locally. In other words Maxwell’s demon is not a free energy machine, but a heat pump. It’s an air conditioner. It can make Hell freeze over, but only if it consumes all the resources of Paradise and transforms it into Hell.

dmix 6y ago

Why was it a demon? To make it more interest or highlight the dilemma?

WJW 6y ago
Back in Maxwells time the idea of a machine that could make "intelligent" decisions was not very developed and neither was the miniaturisation of technology that we know today. So to not let his thought experiment get sidetracked by questions of "how would you actually build such a machine" he just called it a demon and could then focus on the thermodynamic properties of the system. These days we would probably call it a quantum device or something.
freshair 6y ago
> 2. A neutral supernatural spirit. > An hypothetical entity with special abilities postulated for the sake of a thought experiment in philosophy or physics. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/demon#Noun https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/demon#Noun
- NovemberWhiskey 6y ago
  See also, for example, Laplace's demon.

Nomentatus 6y ago

Earlier listing and discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26908886 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26908886

gremlinsinc 6y ago

Could this have bearing on Mandela Effects? I mean if you rule out "false memory" for a specific case or two. I.e. you have seen a flip/flop of one within a week and it's so huge you can't possibly deny it's existence. (I won't try to convince anyone but that's exactly what I experienced...)... Say for instance there's billions of realities and they're all like bubbles but also venn diagrams that sort of intersect at commonality, now say the multi-verse isn't infinite, say there's some entropy or finite size... if we're nearing entropy could the bubbles "pop" causing realities to merge into one? Seems this would be a scientific way to possibly describe how two realities could merge and why people indeed have different memories of those realities.

ryandvm 6y ago

Not Maxwell's Demon, but the closest physical approximation is probably the Hilsch Vortex tube: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_tube https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_tube Pretty cool. (Har har)