Fourth Law of Thermodynamics
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Description
Brendan Graham Dempsey:
First suggested in 1922 by Lotka as the “law of evolution”: “Evolution, in these circumstances, proceeds in such direction as to make the total energy flux through the system a maximum compatible with the constraints.” See “Contribution to the energetics of evolution” (1922b) in PNAS vol. 8, p. 192.
For H. T. Odum’s “Maximum Power Principle” (“During self-organization, system designs develop…”), see 'Self-Organization and Maximum Empower,’ in C. A .S. Hall (ed.) Maximum Power: The Ideas and Applications of H.T.Odum (Colorado University Press, Boulder, CO), p. 311.
Odum has suggested that this constitutes a “fourth law of thermodynamics.”