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Computational Foundations for the Second Law of Thermodynamics
Stephen Wolfram
Entropy increases. Mechanical work irreversibly turns into heat. The Second Law of thermodynamics is considered one of the great general principles of physical science. But 150 years after it was first introduced, there’s still something deeply mysterious about the Second Law. It almost seems like it’s going to be “provably true”. But one never quite gets there; it always seems to need something extra. Sometimes textbooks will gloss over everything; sometimes they’ll give some kind of “common-sense-but-outside-of-physics argument”. But the mystery of the Second Law has never gone away.
A 50-Year Quest: My Personal Journey with the Second Law of Thermodynamics
Stephen Wolfram
The wonder and magic of the Second Law is still there. But now I’m able to see it in a much broader context, and to realize that it’s not just a law about thermodynamics and heat, but instead a window into a very general computational phenomenon.
How Did We Get Here? The Tangled History of the Second Law of Thermodynamics
Stephen Wolfram
As I’ve explained elsewhere, I think I now finally understand the Second Law of thermodynamics. But it’s a new understanding, and to get to it I’ve had to overcome a certain amount of conventional wisdom about the Second Law that I at least have long taken for granted. And to check myself I’ve been keen to know just where this conventional wisdom came from, how it’s been validated, and what might have made it go astray.