Fourth Law of Thermodynamics
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.”
(https://www.brendangrahamdempsey.com/emergentism-notes)
History
David MacLeod:
"Howard T. Odum was a pioneering systems ecologist who lived from 1924 to 2002. In 1955, Odum, along with his colleague Richard Pinkerton, published a startling paper about how physical and biological systems operate to maximize power output, as a tradeoff between efficiency and speed. The paper was titled “Time’s Speed Regulator: The Optimum Efficiency for Maximum Power Output in Physical and Biological Systems.”
The first three laws of thermodynamics have been well established in scientific literature.
- The 1st law states that energy is neither created nor destroyed. It is conserved.
- The 2nd law states that for any process, some of the available potential energy must be dispersed as unusable heat - this is what is commonly referred to as entropy. Yes, energy is conserved, according to the first law, but “it is degraded from a form of energy capable of driving phenomena into a form that is not capable of doing so,” according to Odum. In sum, “Energy is neither created nor destroyed, but in any real process the availability of potential energy is lost.”
- The third law is a little more esoteric, and it has to do with the absence of heat. The 3rd law states that entropy at absolute zero is zero. Molecules fall into simple arrangements like crystals where there is no heat.
There have been various proposals for a 4th Law of Thermodynamics, but none have been universally accepted. The most prominent proposal comes from Odum, which was rooted in a 1922 paper from Alfred Lotka, who suggested that maximum power is the result of a self-organization process working according to the criterion of natural selection. “In other words,” according to Odum, “systems that prevail are those with loading adjusted to operate at the peak of the power efficiency curve… During self-organization, these systems reinforce (choose) pathways with the optimum load for maximum output.”1
This proposed 4th Law of Thermodynamics provides explanation for the building or preserving of order and structure, from the maintenance of a living being to the operation of an industry.
Subsequent to his 1955 paper, Odum’s pioneering work in systems ecology continued to be undergirded by the insights uncovered in that paper, bringing the role of energy into prominence, and exemplified in groundbreaking work, such as his 1973 article which connected the dots between “Energy, Ecology, and Economics.”
(https://daviddmacleod.substack.com/p/hail-howard-an-ode-to-odum?)