The Rule of Phase Applied to History: Vidal, Adams, and Pynchon

[David Morris]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Brooks_Adams

In 1910, Adams printed and distributed to university libraries and
history professors the small volume A Letter to American Teachers of
History proposing a "theory of history" based on the second law of
thermodynamics and the principle of entropy. [5] [6] This,
essentially, is the use of the arrow of time in history. In short, he
applied the physics of dynamical systems of Rudolf Clausius, Hermann
von Helmholtz, and William Thomson to the modeling of human history.

In his manuscript The Rule of Phase Applied to History, Adams
attempted to use Maxwell's demon as an historical metaphor, though he
seems to have misunderstood and misapplied the principle. [7] Adams
interpreted history as a process moving towards "equilibrium," but he
saw militaristic nations (he felt Germany pre-eminent in this class)
as tending to reverse this process, a "Maxwell's Demon of history."

Adams made many attempts to respond to the criticism of his
formulation from his scientific colleagues, but the work remained
incomplete at Adams' death in 1918. It was only published
posthumously. [8]



On Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 11:42 AM, Henry <scuffling at gmail.com> wrote:
> http://atomicrazor.blogs.com/atomic_razor/2008/10/the-rule-of-pha.htm
>
> "But it is a second essay 'The Rule of Phase Applied to History' mentioned by Vidal as a prime influence on Pynchon that Adams fully crystallised the idea of the Technological Singularity in terms of the notion of the phase change - ice, water and steam are all forms of H20, but their physical natures are radically different, even if controlled by the same laws of physics and thus intimately connected through the principles of thermodynamics. Adams saw the phases of history as linked a similar way."