The second law, why worse can be better | Peter Atkins | TEDxOxBridge

Peter presents a scientific vision of corruption and explains how corruption drives the universe. An interesting take on the second law of Thermodynamics.
Talk transcript coming soon on www.tedxoxbridge.com
Peter Atkins is Fellow of Lincoln College, University of Oxford. He is the author of more than 70 books, which include the world-renowned textbook "Physical Chemistry". His recent books include "On Being: A Scientist’s Exploration of the Great Questions of Existence" and "Reactions: The Private Life of Atoms". He is a patron of the British Humanist Association and an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx

[@ErnestoGomezSantan]

Atkins: The beauty and truth of understanding.

[@andrejkiss]

"That's God. He always rings me at this point." :D :D :D

[@pranjultripathi2630]

Thank you Prf. Karmakar. Loved it thoroughly.

[@topdog5252]

That was a great talk Peter!

[@bonitaramsingh]

I didn't understand his books during engineering "education" phase. It all downed on me only when I developed a philosopher's eye during the curiosity instigated "self learning" phase. It is a massive fallacy to even call them the "laws of thermodynamics" for they are the 4 laws of manifestation-of-existence. These energy laws of existence, from to order to disorder and vice versa- must be placed in the beginning of physics books. In fact, there are 7 laws of "energy and existence". The law of anti-entropy (syntropy) is missing- which is the opposite of of second law. The law of distribution (spread) of energy from random chaos and disorder (non existence), to increasing order (manifestation of complex existence) is totally missing. Then, the law of impermanence is missing (entropy decays the universe whereas syntropy rebuilds it again. Paul Dirac called it "mathematical beauty". In future, we must find objective empirical evidences that vindicate the remaining 3 laws .

[@zeer6425]

"Invest in corruption" Genius.

[@GGlad100]

From the standpoint of mathematics can say: Mathematics loves simplicity and successfully explores the same type objects (Henri Poincare). Write the differential equations describing the behavior of objects of different hierarchies, as a rule, has no physical meaning! Such studies are eclectic.

[@marcelosoto-quiroga1965]

"If left alone, any thermodynamic system will shift towards its most probable, most disordered state, the one with the most dispersed energy, which has the highest entropy". This is one of the many definitions of the 2nd law. And it does not only apply to thermodynamic systems, but to human society as well. "If let alone..." i.e. without effort, without a good set of human values, including altruism, respect to others and a penchant towards culture, work and spiritual enrichment, every group of people tends to rot, to chaos. Sociologists and anthropologists should take a deeper look at the 2nd law and entropy concepts.

[@shineyuchandra9423]

The moment he said "For the next 15 minutes", he in fact had EXACTLY 15 minutes left. Wow.

[@adits9633]

I love the way he says 'Global'

[@MegaAugieDoggie]

The increasing global disorder drives pockets of local order as in the fight for survival but eventually the local order will decay imo

[@PauloConstantino167]

@Reckless Abandon Well said!

[@ispinozist7941]

“Heaven, Heaven is a place where nothing, nothing ever happens.” -Talking Heads

[@iraceruk]

Ooh. Talking Heads or Simply Red version? I prefer the latter. Sacrilege, I know!

[@rahulsarma2234]

If to build order in a system, some larger system has to collapse into chaos. If that's all that happens everywhere and always, how were those larger systems built into order. Why was everything created into order, just to let it fall into chaos?

[@lepidoptera9337]

The larger system wasn't built into order. The earliest phase of our universe is a near perfect thermal state. You can see it in the radio sky. The cosmic microwave background has an almost ideal Planck spectrum. What happens after that, however, is that the physical vacuum expands, which creates plenty of "empty" space. The thermal background state "falls" into this new empty space by gravity and _that_ is what creates local order in the universe like galaxies and stars. We do not know of any mechanism that can stop this "fall" and hence if space will continue to expand forever, then it will always reverse the disorder that is happening due to all other interactions. So what makes the universe "tick" is its own inability to put a limit on its own size. It is, if you want, too weak to ever settle itself down.

[@daryaparshina5034]

Where can I find the transcript?

[@trinadhara174]

Osadharon......

[@nelsongonzalez4533]

Corruption sucks 🙂 at any level but especially down there. Things aren't getting any better. It's decadent!

[@PauloConstantino167]

I wonder if he encoded his message to say that politicians and the financial elites are living in pockets of local order while the population lives in disorder, and that this is the normal course of things. That would be sad.

[@shubhamkale1992]

Thermodynamics is science of best of worse...:)

[@stressfreestudy7091]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="108">1:48</a> NO ONE HAS READ WORK BY SHAKESPEARE. HAHAHAHA

[@schwenke069]

Sounds like he knows what he is talking about. And maybe tried to explain in a different kind of way. Didn't really work for me. All good. Hope it helped someone.

[@Ashoerchen]

Is it really necessary to blow up banalities to such an exalted form?