I am not sure I understand your simple rejection of Sayre's and/or
Rifkin's application of entropy to the problem, and would appreciate
any elaboration could make. Where is it applied where it doesn't
apply?
Regarding your example of "unconstrained anthropogenic cooling" as a
type of falsifying thought-experiment... I think I see your point, but
how could such a state occur?
Just trying to understand your point here... Thanks.
On Jul 13, 8:31 pm, "Michael Tobis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I actually thought about Rifkin's view of entropy and information
> theory for a while before I concluded that the second law of
> thermodynamics gets applied where it doesn't apply.
>
> My first glance at Sayre's book didn't make it obvious to me whether
> or not he was falling into the exact same intellectual trap, but it
> seemed to me that something equally silly was going on, as if
> unconstrained anthropogenic cooling would somehow be life enhancing as
> opposed to high-entropy warming.
>
> On Don's other point, I count myself a techno-optimist but a
> socio-pessimist. I think solutions to our problems are technically
> feasible but socially infeasible.
>
> Progress-enhancing methods of the past will not scale to the present
> circumstance, because our problems arise directly from our past
> successes and our attachments to its methods. I don't think dressing
> sociology or ethics up as physics helps though. This is cargo-cult
> philosophy, I'm afraid.
>
> mt
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