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PubMed · 617098

Public nuisance and entropy increase.

M Sugawara
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Abstract

Public nuisance if the inevitable physical conclusion of the second law of thermodynamics, the increase of entropy, under which humans make efforts to build up order, that is, to make states of lower entropy, scattering much entropy into the environment. In other words, humans live on negentropy, negative entropy. Saving of negentropy is the first means of conserving the environment. Soon after C. E. Shanon had introduced the idea of entropy in information theory, N. Wiener showed the relation between entropy of thermodynamics and entropy of information. Wiener showed that the paradox of Maxwell is not a contradiction if we consider the entropy of demon's information. This idea is very suggestive. Moral principles, tax systems, and price mechanisms are effective for the conservation of the environment. Good information systems can conserve good environments. This is the second means. The third way is the use of biological systems. For example, in sewage treatment plants the active sludge purifies polluted water. The reason why microorganisms can select some substances in polluted water is that they have received the information by heredity, the information carried by the double helical structure of DNA.

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M Sugawara. 1977. Public nuisance and entropy increase.. https://doi.org/10.1016/0147-6513(77)90027-6

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