And as for the Second Law of Thermodynamics....

Mr. Hanson's cake, like Newtonian physics, is helpful in some contexts, but irrelevant in others. The attempt to universalize the example that one eats a cake and doesn't have any cake left reminds me of a theory that a friend of mine had as a child. He said that we only had a limited number of heartbeats in our life. So if we exercised hard, we would use up too many of those heartbeats and not live as long.

 

As most people know, exercise does not cause one to wear out. In fact, it usually strengthens one and helps them to live longer. Of course "entropy" exists in certain systems. But making a general statement is very different from making the leap of asserting that it applies in a particular situation. That's a dogmatic style of argumentation based on asserting the general principle and then insisting that anyone who disagrees with their specific application of that principle is going against a universally recognized "truth."

 

Enough of this. I joined WSN because I was interested in all that stuff about the Silk Road..I don't write much about it because I don't  know much about it. But I found those discussions and those of contemporary international processes very helpful.

 

Alan S.

 

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