tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post4227221761960323821..comments2024-03-27T18:43:12.776+00:00Comments on Darwinian Conservatism by Larry Arnhart: Explaining the Modern Revolution: Ideas? Institutions? The Survival of the Richest? Coal? All of the Above?Larry Arnharthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14619785331100785170noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post-92086042153301930282013-07-29T13:01:53.994+01:002013-07-29T13:01:53.994+01:00Approaching the issue from another angle... (I hav...Approaching the issue from another angle... (I have read all three books).<br /><br />What they all miss is a foundational theory of Progress. As such, they stumble around the topic.<br /><br />Until they clearly define what progress is (and is not), and what separates progress from non progress, they can't explain the major transition events such as the transition from tribe to state or more importantly state to open access order and modern prosperity.Instant Karmahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08907882955776032199noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16355954.post-44970400288182403412013-05-16T19:30:28.227+01:002013-05-16T19:30:28.227+01:00"The chaos will prevail in the end" soun..."The chaos will prevail in the end" sounds a lot more like entropy than Darwinism. In fact, much of pro-Darwinian rhetoric was about how competition in the struggle for existence made the gazelle faster, the lion more powerful, the eye more perfect. Evolution was very much felt as a progressive thing.<br /><br />Entropy, on the other hand... <br /><br />In thermodynamics, entropy is basically a measure of temperature sameness. By itself, thermal energy always goes from hotter to colder. So eventually everything will be the same temperature. Entropy will be at a maximum. All physical processes that require temperature differences (which includes life) will cease and we will have "the heat death of the universe."<br /><br />Lord Kelvin first spelled this out in 1851. It was quite contrary to the idea that civilization is now and will forever march forward. Civilization makes things more complex, less same--but it is only made possible by the increase in entropy caused by burning coal and using the sun. Eventually, those sources will run out.<br /><br />I have always thought this idea was one reason, maybe small, that Victorian optimism declined as the century wore on.Roger Sweenyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12734128265493099062noreply@blogger.com