Sepp Hasslberger Update: Thermoenergetics: Can Hydraulics Reverse Entropy?
The idea of entropy, of the constant and irreversible winding down of
the universe, was introduced with the second law of thermodynamics.
This law is based on an observation of James Watt's steam machine,
which was the only technological utilization of thermal energy
available at the time. According to the current views of
thermodynamics, there is no antidote to entropy. Once expended, energy
is said to be lost forever in that giant heat sink, which we imagine
the vast reaches of the universe to be.
One of the great minds of this century, an outsider to
established science, has recognized the folly of this view and coined a
term for the antidote. He calls it syntropy. In his book Cosmography, R. Buckminster Fuller writes: "The
reader will discover that the inexorable course of the gradual running
down of the energy of the universe - that is, entropy - is only part of
the picture. Entropy has a complementary phase, which we designated
syntropy".
I wrote these words and quoted Fuller in 1993, in an article titled A New Beginning For Thermodynamics.
At the time, I had my share of opposition, together with some
appreciative comments. But few physicists seemed ready to question the
unconditional validity of the second law of thermodynamics at the time.
It was and perhaps still is one of the untouchable principles - almost
a holy cow of physics.
Now, a decade and a half later, it seems that some researchers have
hit upon a way to circumvent the law, to reverse that inexorable
tendency of heat to disperse from a warm place to a cooler one.
...
Full article: http://blog.hasslberger.com/2007/11/thermoenergetics_can_hydraulic.html
