Ergodynamics

By William Hamilton III

Abstract: New theories in physics and cosmology as well as theories involving consciousness and the interaction of mind and matter have apparently circumvented the known laws of thermodynamics. The purpose of this essay is to suggest new laws that supplant the laws of thermodynamics and include information theory as well as the formation of material systems from non-material systems.

Existing laws of thermodynamics:

From Wikipedia:

Conservation of energy is possibly the most important, and certainly the most practically useful of several conservation laws in physics.

The law states that the total inflow of energy into a system must equal the total outflow of energy from the system, plus the change in the energy contained within the system. In other words, energy can be converted from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed.

In thermodynamics, the first law of thermodynamics is a statement of the conservation of energy for thermodynamic systems.

The law of conservation of energy excludes the possibility of perpetuum mobile of the first kind.

Einstein's famous equation (written below) describes the relationship between energy and matter:

E = MC²

In the equation above, energy (E) is equal to matter (M) times the square of a constant (C). Einstein suggested that energy and matter are interchangeable. His equation also suggests that the quantity of energy and matter in the Universe is fixed.

The first law is said to apply to closed systems only. However, completely closed systems are not found in nature. This law seems to only fulfill an ideal system in which all boundaries of the system are closed and therefore no energy can be input or output from the system.

If the Big Bang cosmology is true, the entire universe system started with the creation of space, energy, and time. On a quantum scale, virtual particles arise from the vacuum, but disappear quickly. The first law seems inadequate to account for the appearance of particles in space when that appearance seems to come from a non-spatial, non-energetic, and non-temporal state of existence. In other words, the creation of energy is not completely forbidden or we would have no universe.

The mind-body problem can be resolved if we just supersede the laws of thermodynamics with new laws. We can even postulate that mind has the potential to create energy, transform it, and destroy it as suggested by experiments in psychoenergetics.

Therefore I propose a new set of laws that I term the laws of Ergodynamics to set them apart from those of thermodynamics and to be more embracive of the subject of energy and activity in the universe.

My initial formulation of these laws follow as postulates.

1. The total system of energy in the universe or any natural system can be created, conserved, and destroyed.

This first law frees a system from the limitations imposed by a restriction of energy to transformative processes only. It also allows universes as whole systems to be created as well as destroyed as suggested in ancient philosophies. It even allows for the human psyche to create energy, conserve, and destroy it while itself existing beyond energy.

It may even be possible to create an artificial system for the creation of energy or test the creation of energy within a system defined as a closed system.

The current thinking on the creation of energy at the time of the Big Bang is that energy comes in positive and negative values and that the total energy, both positive and negative, in the universe sums to zero. Do we know this is true? No, it is just a supposition. In fact, energy may be continuously created and has no preferred moment in time.

The first law of thermodynamics is seen as a subset of the first law of ergodynamics applying to conservative energy systems and energy transformations.

The creation of energy here means the actual materialization of particles of energy and the destruction of energy means the actual dematerialization of particles of energy without residue, heat, or by products of any kind. An energy system begins at zero and ends at zero with intermediates states that can be quantified.

The second law of thermodynamics, in a concise form, states that "the total entropy of any thermodynamically isolated system tends to increase over time, approaching a maximum value.

When energy flows from a higher potential to a lower potential and is distributed evenly across a system, the entropy of the system is said to increase. Energy available for work decreases. The maximum value is when we have achieved equalization and any point has equal potential with every other point.

Work is defined as the following line integral:

where:

C is the path or curve traversed by the object;

is the force vector;

is the position vector.

If we have no energy, we cannot perform work. We cannot move object A to position B. Energy gives rise to force and force does work.

2. The total system of energy in the universe or any natural system increases in entropy with the loss of information and decreases in entropy and increases in order with the addition of information. Information can be imposed on a system when created or conserved and deleted from a system when destroyed.

This is my second postulate of Ergodynamics of which the second law of thermodynamics is a subset.

This postulate introduces the idea that information can control the ergodynamic activity and thermodynamic state of the universe or any natural system.

The source of the creation of information is posited to be outside any material dimensions and the attributes of this non-material source is such that it can create space, energy, information, and time. Though we may want to attribute such a power to a Supreme Being, it is only speculation at this point that its ultimate source is in being or beings, but the door opens to higher dimensions or basic dimensions of reality.

Experiment will determine whether the human psyche is emanating energy in variable amounts on a rather constant basis.

Since this is just a suppositional essay at this point than can be expanded to thousands of words, I will proceed with a third law of ergodynamics that may actually be the most important.

We begin again with the third law of thermodynamics:

From Wikipedia:

The third law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of a perfect crystal at absolute zero or 0K is zero. This means that in a perfect crystal, at 0K, nearly all molecular motion should cease in order to achieve ΔS=0. A perfect crystal is one in which the internal lattice structure is the same at all times; in other words, it is fixed and non-moving, and does not have rotational or vibrational energy. This means that there is only one way in which this order can be attained: when every particle of the structure is in its proper place.

However, the equation for predicting quantized vibrational levels shows that even when the vibrational quantum number is 0, the molecule still has vibrational energy. This means that no matter how cold the temperature gets, the molecule will always have vibration. This is in keeping with the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which states that both the position and the momentum of a particle cannot be known precisely, at a given time.

E_v = h(v₀)[v + (1 / 2)], where h = Planck's constant, v₀ = characteristic frequency of the vibration, and v = the vibrational quantum number. Note that even when v = 0 (the zero-point energy), E_v does not equal 0 (v₀ ≠ 0).

Since all molecules will have some vibrational energy at all times, the entropy of such a molecule will not be 0. However, the third law of thermodynamics requires the entropy of a perfect crystal to be 0, at absolute zero. Since, perfect crystal configuration can never physically be reached, many have used this as an argument against the possibility of attaining absolute zero temperature.

3. The total system of energy in the universe or any natural system increases in entropy with the loss of information and all change in entropy stops but when energy is destroyed, all material information and energy and the entire system dematerializes.

This last postulate is difficult to state precisely and this postulate as well as the other two are subject to modification on discovery.