arXiv subjects

Eric J. Chaisson

Publications and source records attributed to Eric J. Chaisson.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2015

Energy Flows in Low-Entropy Complex Systems

Nature's many complex systems--physical, biological, and cultural--are islands of low-entropy order within increasingly disordered seas of surrounding, high-entropy chaos. Energy is a principal facilitator of the rising complexity of all such systems in the expanding Universe, including galaxies, stars, planets, life, society, and machines. A large amount of empirical evidence--relating neither entropy nor information, rather energy--suggests that an underlying simplicity guides the emergence and growth of complexity among many known, highly varied systems in the 14-billion-year-old Universe, from big bang to humankind. Energy flows are as centrally important to life and society as they are to stars and galaxies. In particular, the quantity energy rate density--the rate of energy flow per unit mass--can be used to explicate in a consistent, uniform, and unifying way a huge collection of diverse complex systems observed throughout Nature. Operationally, those systems able to utilize optimal amounts of energy tend to survive and those that cannot are non-randomly eliminated.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2014

Internalizing Null Extraterrestrial "Signals": An Astrobiological App for a Technological Society

One of the beneficial outcomes of searching for life in the Universe is that it grants greater awareness of our own problems here on Earth. Lack of contact with alien beings to date might actually comprise a null "signal" pointing humankind toward a viable future. Astrobiology has surprising practical applications to human society; within the larger cosmological context of cosmic evolution, astrobiology clarifies the energetic essence of complex systems throughout the Universe, including technological intelligence that is intimately dependent on energy and likely will be for as long as it endures. The "message" contained within the "signal" with which today's society needs to cope is reasonably this: Only solar energy can power our civilization going forward without soiling the environment with increased heat yet robustly driving the economy with increased per capita energy usage. The null "signals" from extraterrestrials also offer a rational solution to the Fermi paradox as a principle of cosmic selection likely limits galactic civilizations in time as well as in space: Those advanced life-forms anywhere in the Universe that wisely adopt, and quickly too, the energy of their parent star probably survive, and those that don't, don't.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2014

Practical Applications of Cosmology to Human Society

Complex systems throughout Nature display structures and functions that are built and maintained, at least in part, by optimal energies flowing through them--not specific, ideal values, rather ranges in energy rate density below which systems are starved and above which systems are destroyed. Cosmic evolution, as a physical cosmology that notably includes life, is rich in empirical findings about many varied systems that can potentially help assess global problems facing us here on Earth. Despite its grand and ambitious objective to unify theoretical understanding of all known complex systems from big bang to humankind, cosmic evolution does have useful, practical applications from which humanity could benefit. Cosmic evolution's emphasis on quantitative data analyses might well inform our attitudes toward several serious issues now challenging 21st-century society, including global warming, smart machines, world economics, and cancer research. This paper comprises one physicist's conjectures about each of these applied topics, suggesting how energy-flow modeling can guide our search for viable solutions to real-world predicaments confronting civilization today.

physics.pop-ph↗

arXiv2014

The Natural Science Underlying Big History

Nature's many varied complex systems (including galaxies, stars, planets, life, and society) are islands of order within the increasingly disordered universe. All organized systems are subject to physical, biological or cultural evolution, which together comprise the grander interdisciplinary subject of cosmic evolution. This is global history greatly extended, big history with a scientific basis, and natural history broadly portrayed across 14 billion years of time. Such evolution writ large has significant potential to unify the natural sciences into a holistic understanding of who we are and whence we came. No new science (beyond frontier, non-equilibrium thermodynamics) is needed to describe cosmic evolution's major milestones at a deep and empirical level. Quantitative models and experimental tests imply that a remarkable simplicity underlies the emergence and growth of complexity for a wide spectrum of known and diverse systems. In particular, energy rate density is an objective metric suitable to gauge relative degrees of complexity along a hierarchy of widely assorted systems observed throughout the material universe.

physics.pop-ph↗