Taming theory with thought experiments: Understanding and scientific progress

I claim that one way thought experiments contribute to scientific progress is by increasing scientific understanding. Understanding does not have a currently accepted characterization in the philosophical literature, but I argue that we already have ways to test for it. For instance, current pedagogical practice often requires that students demonstrate being in either or both of the following two states: 1) Having grasped the meaning of some relevant theory, concept, law or model, 2) Being able to apply that theory, concept, law or model fruitfully to new instances. Three thought experiments are presented which have been important historically in helping us pass these tests, and two others that cause us to fail. Then I use this operationalization of understanding to clarify the relationships between scientific thought experiments, the understanding they produce, and the progress they enable. I conclude that while no specific instance of understanding (thus conceived) is necessary for scientific progress, understanding in general is.     

卡诺定理和热力学第二定律须正确扩展

热力学是一门依靠大量科学实验的事实发展起来的近代科学学科.在19世纪经典热力学有过它的辉煌年代,曾经是当时科学发展的一个典范.卡诺定理和由此建立起来的经典热力学第二定律,其正确性不容任何形式的否定.但由于近百年的欠发展,如今热力学成为比较罕见的谬误相对集中的学术领域.当前对卡诺定理和经典热力学第二定律的否定,大体上可以分为两种：一种是比较直接的反对,或声称得到了第二类永动机;另一种是通过篡改或混淆热力学熵函数的定义,或利用根本不存在的＂麦克斯韦妖＂等（包括声称为＂证明热力学第二定律＂的形式）来进行否定.为驳斥谬误,通过一种改变内部热容的卡诺热机的详细描述,证明：卡诺定理和经典热力学第二定律不可能也不容否定.同时指明：它们必须正确地加以发展成为扩展卡诺定理和普适化热力学第二定律.     

Statistical mechanics and thermodynamics: A Maxwellian view

One finds, in Maxwell's writings on thermodynamics and statistical physics, a conception of the nature of these subjects that differs in interesting ways from the way they are usually conceived. In particular, though—in agreement with the currently accepted view—Maxwell maintains that the second law of thermodynamics, as originally conceived, cannot be strictly true, the replacement he proposes is different from the version accepted by most physicists today. The modification of the second law accepted by most physicists is a probabilistic one: although statistical fluctuations will result in occasional spontaneous differences in temperature or pressure, there is no way to predictably and reliably harness these to produce large violations of the original version of the second law. Maxwell advocates a version of the second law that is strictly weaker; the validity of even this probabilistic version is of limited scope, limited to situations in which we are dealing with large numbers of molecules en masse and have no ability to manipulate individual molecules. Connected with this is his conception of the thermodynamic concepts of heat, work, and entropy; on the Maxwellian view, these are concept that must be relativized to the means we have available for gathering information about and manipulating physical systems. The Maxwellian view is one that deserves serious consideration in discussions of the foundation of statistical mechanics. It has relevance for the project of recovering thermodynamics from statistical mechanics because, in such a project, it matters which version of the second law we are trying to recover.     

摩罗精神的文学转化与实践——鲁迅讽刺精神另探

鲁迅的讽刺贯穿其创作始终.研究者除了发现其艺术来源之外,也应该关注其思想和精神来源.鲁迅不只是为国人译介摩罗精神,他选择的是精神界的启蒙、改造和战斗,讽刺是其武器.他有意识地读取的"摩罗精神"的本质是叛逆、反抗、战斗精神,这符合讽刺精神所需内核,也有功利性质的一致性,并且在自己反对旧文化的文学实践中转化为讽刺精神.从这一角度来看,鲁迅读取的摩罗精神与他的讽刺精神在文学上存在着相关、转化、实践的关系.     

Waiting for Landauer

Landauer's Principle asserts that there is an unavoidable cost in thermodynamic entropy creation when data is erased. It is usually derived from incorrect assumptions, most notably, that erasure must compress the phase space of a memory device or that thermodynamic entropy arises from the probabilistic uncertainty of random data. Recent work seeks to prove Landauer's Principle without using these assumptions. I show that the processes assumed in the proof, and in the thermodynamics of computation more generally, can be combined to produce devices that both violate the second law and erase data without entropy cost, indicating an inconsistency in the theoretical system. Worse, the standard repertoire of processes selectively neglects thermal fluctuations. Concrete proposals for how we might measure dissipationlessly and expand single molecule gases reversibly are shown to be fatally disrupted by fluctuations. Reversible, isothermal processes on molecular scales are shown to be disrupted by fluctuations that can only be overcome by introducing entropy creating, dissipative processes.     

“麦克斯韦妖”工作原理对企业人才任用的启示

本文主要探讨了“麦克斯韦妖”工作原理对人才任用的启示，认为在人力资源管理系统中存在着多个“开关型界门”，要充分发挥这些“界门”的作用，投入人员和精力，做好职位分析和收集人才信息等基础性工作。与“麦克斯韦妖”一样，对相关信息进行对比后，把“快分子”放过去，把“慢分子”挡在门外。