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CHAPTER VIII

THE EXTENSION OF THE SECOND LAW

        We have, then, come to the conclusion that the second law of thermodynamics is not true as a general property of matter. It will, according to our theory, have to be omitted from the list of the physical laws. But what is there that we can put in place of it? We can say, in the first place, that every physical law is reversible, or rather, to be more accurate, that if any physical law is true, its reverse must also be true.

        Furthermore, taking the conception of "mechanical efficiency," the second law of thermodynamics, if true, would set an upper limit to the amount of energy a body can use; namely, whatever difference in energy level there is. Now, if this second law is omitted from the list of physical laws, there is no such upper limit, there being more energy than that in the bodies, an inaccessible fund into which all energy tends to leak. But we can still use this limit, and express the amount of energy used by the body as a percentage of this limit. If we consider that the second law of thermodynamics is no longer a general physical law, this percentage may be 100% (neutral tendency), or less than 100% (positive tendency), or more than 100% (negative tendency). The mechanical efficiency of a body may thus fall into any of the three categories, but we have seen that 100% is a critical point, and when the mechanical efficiency changes from less than 100% to more than 100% or vice versa we have a change in the appearance of the action of the body. This critical point of mechanical efficiency constitutes the dividing line between living and non-living phenomena.

        As we have seen, a universe following the positive tendency cannot have existed for an infinite time past; and the reverse of this rule must also be true, that a universe following the negative tendency cannot continue to exist for an infinite time in the future. Hence, if we suppose the universe to have existed from eternity past to eternity future, it follows that the average mechanical efficiency of the universe, taking all parts of space and time, must be exactly 100%. On the contrary, in our section of space and time, though we have found instances of the negative tendency (that is to say, life), yet the positive tendency visibly prevails, so that the mechanical efficiency at present of our part of the universe is considerably less than 100%. As the probabilities are that in our part of space for all time, or at the present moment for all space, the mechanical efficiency of the universe is about 100%, it follows that there must be other parts of space and time in which the mechanical efficiency is over 100% and such parts of space and time supply us with examples of a reverse universe.

        We have seen that the positive tendency is characterized by a constant running down of energy levels and a storage of energy into an inaccessible reserve store, which can in its turn be utilized and built up again into differences of energy-level only by the negative tendency. That is to say, the positive tendency stores up reserve energy, and the negative tendency once more utilizes it.

        Since most of the substances within our observation follow the positive tendency, we may obtain characteristics of the two tendencies to some extent by observation, using our observations for the positive tendency, and reversing for the negative tendency. For instance, it has been observed on the earth that there is constant dissociation of atoms going on, especially in the case of substances of very great atomic weight (e. g., uranium and radium). It must be supposed that these substances must have been there in the first place in much larger amounts than at present, when the earth was in a hotter condition than at present; and accordingly we might expect, in very hot bodies such as the sun and stars, to find many substances with large atomic weight and few with small atomic weight, and in nebulas and newly formed stars to find substances almost entirely with large atomic weight, and almost no such substances as hydrogen, helium, etc., whose atomic weight is very small. The contrary, however, is true. In the sun, there is very little to be seen of substances of very large atomic weight; even such a substance as gold, which is more stable than uranium or radium and much more common on the earth, but with a large atomic weight, is conspicuously absent, while hydrogen and helium are present in large quantities (helium was first discovered in the solar spectrum as its name indicates). Furthermore, the nearer a star is to the nebular stage, the more conspicuously is this true; while in nebulae, temporary stars, etc., hydrogen, which has the very lightest atoms of any known substance, constitutes most of the substance of the star or nebula. It thus follows that in such hot bodies as stars and nebulae, there is an opposite process going on, which we may call the integration of atoms, the building up of larger atoms out of smaller ones.

        All this is occurring under the positive tendency. If we suppose a section of the universe (either in space or in time) in which the negative tendency prevails, the reverse will he true. The integration of atoms will take place at lower temperatures, the dissociation at higher temperatures. It follows, that, if we consider a cycle in time of a body (of rather, of a large group of bodies), or of a spatial section of the universe, while we have two stages of mechanical efficiency, first building up reserve energy, then using up that same reserve energy for available energy, we have in a corresponding period a cycle of four stages in the evolution of atoms. In the first part of our "positive" epoch atoms are being built up, into more and more complicated forms; in the latter part of our "positive" epoch they are dissociated once more; during the beginning of the "negative" epoch the atoms are re-integrated, until sufficiently large differences of heat-level are built up to reverse the process, and the atoms become once more dissociated. Why this process should take place in just this way I cannot attempt to explain; but it may easily be that both dissociation and integration of atoms is constantly taking place, and the excess of one over the other would differ under different circumstances.

        However, be that as it may, under the neutral tendency there would be no tendency whatever for the ultimate particles of matter to form into bodies or compound particles; so that we may expect that, even should the neutral tendency be found to exist, that there would be no "neutral" bodies, but that it would be entirely whatever the ultimate particles may be; e. g., that it would consist of separate electrons, if, as is at present believed, the electron is the ultimate material particle. Either the positive or the negative tendency starts out by building up more and more complicated atoms; but the neutral tendency does no such thing; accordingly we can take this as one of the characteristics of the neutral tendency. Another characteristic of the neutral tendency would be that, though it requires impenetrable matter, yet, since any friction resulting from the motion of bodies through it would tend to be counterbalanced by the equal negative element of building up motion, the result would be, an apparent lack of resistance, characteristic again only of the neutral tendency. And, inasmuch as it is now supposed that, though radiant energy is vibration transmitted by the ether, yet it is electrons scattered through the ether that are in vibration, and since the ether with its supposed electrons seems to be the only thing known that offers no resistances to the passage of moving objects, it follows that the ether, or the electrons it contains, is the example of neutral tendency to be found in our universe.

        But we have said before that the probability of the neutral tendency is zero; how then does this come? As we have said before, a zero probability is merely an extreme improbability, but not necessarily an impossibility. For instance, if we have a finite segment of a line, and we select a point on the line at random, the probability that that point will be the middle point is precisely zero, since there are on the line an infinite number of points, of which only one is the middle point; so that the probability of the selected point being the middle point is 1 divided by infinity, that is, zero. 

  _C   

^{A ________|_________ B}

Or, to take another example, the probability that a point selected in space at random will be within the earth is: the earth's volume divided by the volume of space, which is zero since the latter quantity is infinite. Here, there are an infinite number of possibilities of the point being within the earth, is zero. Thus it is with the "neutral tendency." Its probability is zero, and yet there is a chance for an infinite amount of matter in the universe to come under it, provided that there is infinitely more matter that is either the positive or the negative tendency, In fact, we know from the theory of error that a mechanical efficiency of 100%, being exactly the average of the universe, is more probable than any other given mechanical efficiency, let us say 85%. And yet, in spite of that, its probability is zero. In fact, if we figure out the probability of the position of the universe at a given moment having come out exactly as it did, we also arrive at the conclusion that the theoretical probability of the universe being as it is, is 0. And yet the universe exists, in spite of its zero probability.

        Now let us consider the chemical structure of the positive and negative tendencies. For this purpose it will be necessary to distinguish between exothermic and endothermic compounds, that is, between compounds on a lower level of chemical energy than their constituents and compounds on a higher level than their constituents. We might expect that the former would be built up under the positive tendency, and the latter under the negative tendency, because the composition of the former out of their constituents involves the conversion of some chemical energy into heat, while the composition of an endothermic compound from its constituents involves the conversion of heat into a higher level of chemical energy. However, we must draw some distinctions here. The positive and the negative tendencies merely tend to build up respectively exothermic and endothermic compounds. Under special circumstances exceptions can be found.

        It is true, indeed, in general, that the negative tendency tends to build up more and more endothermic substances; though many exothermic substances may result, either from more exothermic substances or where a substance, on account of its exothermic properties, has very little chemical activity. Also, the positive tendency does, as a whole, build up exothermic substances, though endothermic substances may be produced, usually as a result of a difference of energy-level higher than that of the endothermic compound. However, whether the negative tendency, for instance, builds up endothermic substances in negative or in positive objects, is a question which cannot be considered until we consider a little in relation to the reactions on one another of the positive and negative substances. We will accordingly proceed to investigate that.