A central question in human thermodynamics is to explain the actions revolving around life, love, work, and meaning thermodynamically.

In thermodynamics, human thermodynamics is the scientific study of the energetic and entropic aspects of the processes of human life, namely those existent between heat, work, spontaneity, irreversibility and the laws defining therein. [1] The laws of thermodynamics, as generally agreed, are the only laws of the universe that have direct bearing on the function and activities of human life. [2] As such, "human thermodynamics", a term coined initially in 1893 by English engineer Bryan Donkin and clearly in 1952 by English physicist C.G. Darwin, is the science of the thermodynamic operation of systems of activated humans. [14] In Darwin's own words: [4]

“Through determining some kind of laws of human thermodynamics, we shall be more successful in doing good in the world.”

- C.G. Darwin, The Next Million Years (1952)

Human thermodynamics, in short, is the study of heat and its relation to the motion and changes in the equilibriums of human bodies. The essential process of thermodynamics is that whereby heat cycles through a system of chemical species, e.g. water molecules in a steam engine, or human molecules (people) in an social system, and thereby mediates the production of work, such as in occupation. [13] In human terms, heat, in the form of gamma-ray photons, cycles from the sun, the systems are coupled economies, the chemical species are people, and the work is the work of life. The four laws of thermodynamics define the boundaries of this action.

The use of thermodynamics to explain human life, to note, is one of the most difficult of subjects. In 1910, for instance, American historian Henry Adams defined the loose subject of human thermodynamics, to be the physical-chemical explanation of sociology and history. In particular, in reference to the development of a new science of history thermodynamics, Adams stated that "if the physicists and physico-chemists can at last find their way to an arrangement that would satisfy the sociologists and historians, the problem would be wholly solved." He continues: [3]

"Such a complete solution [socio-history thermodynamics] seems not impossible; but at present ... to call for the aid of another Newton."

- Henry Adams, A Letter to American Teachers of History (1910)

In sum, human thermodynamics is the modeling of the entire corpus of human activity from a thermodynamic system's perspective.

Carnot cycle system view of a working body surface section of a rotating earth, put in contact, alternately, with a hot body (day time) then a cold body (night time), diurnally, according to which daily "work" is done by the actions of Boerhaave's law.

What is life?

See main: what is life? (theories of existence)

One of the earliest attempts at a solution to the question of "what is life", from a thermodynamic perspective, was made by Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann who, in his 1886 discussion of philosophical problems connected to thermodynamics, noted: [12]

"The transition of heat from sun to earth [can drive] the performance of work, like the transition of water from the boiler to the cooling instillation [and] the struggle for existence of animate beings [is a] a struggle for entropy."

In more direct application to human life, building on the work of Boltzmann, the term "human thermodynamics", defined as a branch of science, was coined in 1952 by English physicist Charles Galton Darwin who argued that the logic of statistical thermodynamics could be used to determine the future of the human race. [4]

The rudiments of the science of human thermodynamics, can be said to have started with postulates of English physicist William Thomson, i.e. Lord Kelvin, the person who, in 1849, coined the term thermo-dynamics. In particular, in 1852 Thomson supposed that "there is a universal tendency in nature to the dissipation of mechanical energy" and discussed how this tendency relates to "vegetable life" or to the "will of animate creatures". [5] Soon thereafter, people began to wonder how this universal law of physics related to or contrasted with the universal law of biological evolution as established by English naturalist Charles Darwin in his 1859 Origin of Species. [6] Over the years, dozens of people have approached this puzzle form a number of angles, as are found in a number of obscure articles and books. [7]

In modern terms, as viewed through the science of human chemistry, the process of human life involves chemical reactions or the formation, dissolution, or reconfiguration of human chemical bonds between human molecules (people viewed as atomic structures) and the work produced therefrom. [8] The drive of this work, transmitting through the forces of energy and entropy, originates from the heat output of the sun. The relationships between heat and work are dictated by the laws of thermodynamics, and human society, like any machine or organism, is no exception to this dictate. [9]

Overview
Thermodynamics, by virtue of its universality, penetrates all areas of human life studies. The branches of human thermodynamics thus far semi-developed include: psychodynamics, thermodynamic evolution, economic thermodynamics, sociological thermodynamics, political thermodynamics, cessation thermodynamics, history thermodynamics, business thermodynamics, religious thermodynamics, among others, all of which abide by the same laws.

Carnot engine diagram of a confined body of working substance in a piston-and-cylinder heat engine.

The laws of thermodynamics, particularly the first and second law, i.e. those dealing with energy and entropy, are the central regulators (or driving forces) of human life. These are the laws according to which heat flow through any system of interactive molecular species produces work and in the process changes the state of the system irreversibly. The science of thermodynamics, itself, was founded in 1824 by French physicist Sadi Carnot who was the first to begin to formulate the basic energy laws of generalized heat engines. In the years to follow, people began to apply these universal energy laws to human life.

First law analysis overview:

See main: Human system, Human energy, Social energy, First law, etc.

The starting point for any thermodynamic analysis of human life, is the first law energy balance in respect to earth-bound "working systems" of chemical species subjected to daily solar cycles of heat input. In particular, each day, due to the configuration of the solar system, biospheric portions of the earth's surface, during its rotation, are put in contact diurnally with a hot body (the sun) and cold body (the night sky) on an alternating basis, according to which heat Q flows through various partitioned off human social systems, e.g. one small city, that each function as "working bodies", i.e. any partitioned off system through which heat may flow, of molecular species (e.g. a set of human species). [10] In the human point of view, during each cycle, work-output is produced cyclically through the operation of economic, socially-mediated, substrate-attached, human molecular interactions in the form of multiple coupled social heat engines. [1]

Second law analysis overview:

See main: Human entropy, Social entropy, Economic entropy, Second law, etc.

After analyzing any human interaction according to the first law, a next step is to study the human process from an entropy point of view. This is one of the more difficult aspects of human thermodynamic analysis, leading often to unfounded interpretations of "disorder", "pollution", "chaos", etc., as well as a number of newly coined terms such as social entropy, human entropy, economic entropy, among others. The only correct way, however, to translate the second law of thermodynamics into the study and analysis of human actions is to build directly on German physicist Rudolf Clausius' 1865 thermodynamics textbook Mechanical Theory of Heat, following this path through into modern chemical thermodynamics. Most, who attempt to formulate a second law interpretation of human activity, never read Clausius, but instead crudely attempt to build formulations on tertiary interpretations of Clausius' work, often leading to absurd conclusions, the pinnacle example being the conclusion that "life tends towards chaos", which is obviously a backwards trend then what is observed.

Combined law analysis

See main: Combined law of thermodynamics

The first and second law of thermodynamics are often combined into one expression, called the "combined law", particularly for the case of isothermal (constant temperature) isobaric (constant pressure) processes, as happens to be the case for most processes occuring on the surface of the earth. This amounts to a statement of the effect that a natural process will only occur or proceed spontaneously (according to the spontaneity criterion) if it actuates, in the system or in the path of the process, a decrease in the Gibbs free energy G. This logic is often truncated as follows:

an expression which is said to quantify naturally occurring (or energetically favored) processes.

Human thermodynamics pioneers video (3:24-min) by American chemical engineer Libb Thims (Jan 29, 2009).

Short history

See main: History of human thermodynamics

The earliest ideas concerning human thermodynamics, i.e. how the laws of thermodynamics relate to human life, began about 1852 when William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) published his "On a Universal Tendency in Nature to the Dissipation of Mechanical Energy", in which he set forth the view, for many superficial readers, that all natural systems tend to down grade in energy over time and that this logic defines the course of human history. [5] In the years to follow Thomson's publication, outlining the view that "dissipation", often seem as embodied in the second law, applies to the entire universe, over 100+ human thermodynamics pioneers began to profess their views in various spheres of publication in the humanities.

In the 1910s, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung began to carry over thermodynamic concepts, such as psychic energy and psychic entropy, into psychology, thus founding the subject of psychodynamics.

In 1952, the modern human statistical thermodydnamic view that each person is a human molecule, emerged in the publication The Next Million Years by English physicist Charles Galton Darwin, which outlined the logic that sets of reactive human molecules, constitute thermodynamic systems.

In 1977, Belgian chemist Ilya Prigogine one the Nobel prize for work in thermodynamics and soon thereafter, through various publications, began to establish the view that human life is a far-from-equilibrium phenomenon subject to dissipations, bifurcations, and fluctuations.

Cover design for hard-copy publication of the EoHT in circa 2010.

In 2007, the first chapter on human thermodynamics was published by American chemical engineer Libb Thims and the following year, in early 2008, the Encyclopedia of Human Thermodynamics (pictured adjacent) began to be written online, wiki-style, scheduled to be published as a 5-volume set when near completion.

Perspective of in the current framework of modern science
The view of a science of “human thermodynamics”, in a general sense, is considered either a cutting-edge difficult subject for a few and to many others an anathema, in spite of the fact that well over one hundred people have written and theorized on the subject over the last 150-years. The basic issue is not with the correctness of the science, but with the fact that the application of thermodynamics cuts into the very heart of human stability, in areas such as evolution, love, relationships, free will, death, religion, purpose, racism, etc., and as such the topic easily becomes heated and emotional for many.

In the 2007 book A History of Thermodynamics, German physicist Ingo Müller, a professor of thermodynamics for over 30-years, outlines his opinion that the field of human thermodynamics is a science of the future. In particular, in his section on “socio-thermodynamics”, he states that “on several occasions I have hinted at the usefulness of thermodynamic concepts in remote areas, i.e. fields that have little or nothing to do with thermodynamics as first sight.” He continues, “those hints would be wanton remarks unless I corroborated them somehow, in order to acquaint the reader with the spirit of extrapolation away from thermodynamic proper.” To be sure, he reasons:

- Ingo Müller, A History of Thermodynamics (2007)

In the current view, he points out that “they are struggling to be taken seriously, and to obtain admission into the field.” [11]

See also
● Human thermodynamics (objections to)

Cultural references
● Allan, Forbes. (1999). Milton's Progress, Chapter 21, Rowanlea Grove Press.
● (a) Quote: “human thermodynamic – an exteriorized channeling of behavior and character that squanders individual qualities.”
(b) Source: Levy, Pierre. (1997). Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging World in Cyberspace, Page 52, New York: Basic Books.
● Anderson, John. (2007). Mann’s Doctor Faustus: Gestapo Music, (pgs. 23). Universal Publishers.

References
1. (a) Darwin, Charles G. (1952). The Next Million Years (pg. 26), London: Rupert Hart-Davis.
(b)Thims, Libb. (2007). Human Chemistry (Volume Two), (Ch. 16: "Human Thermodynamics", pgs. 653-702), (preview). Morrisville, NC: LuLu.
(c) Human thermodynamics - IoHT Glossary.
(d) Ullis, Karlis (1999). Age Right - Turn Back the Clock with a Proven Antiaging Program, (section: "Human Thermodynamics", pg. 34-36) New York: Simon & Schuster.
2. (a) Quote: "Any theory claiming to describe how organisms originate and continue to exist by natural causes must be compatible with the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics."
(b) Source: Haynie, Donald. (2001). Biological Thermodynamics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3. (a) Adams, Henry. (1910). A Letter to American Teachers of History, (pg. 199). Google Books, Scanned PDF. Washington.
(b) Burich, Keith R. (1987). “Henry Adams, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, and the Course of History”. Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 48, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep.), pp. 467-482.
4. (a) The term "human thermodynamics" was coined by Charles Galton Darwin in 1952, with the accompanying and explicit logic that humans are molecules found in dynamical systems being governed by the laws of statistical thermodynamics.
(b) See: Laws of human thermodynamics.
(c) Darwin, Charles G. (1952). The Next Million Years (pg. 26), London: Rupert Hart-Davis.
5. (a) Quote: according to “known facts with reference to the mechanics of animal and vegetable bodies” there is “at present in the material world a universal tendency to the dissipation of mechanical energy” and that “any restoration of mechanical energy, without more than an equivalent of dissipation, is impossible in inanimate material processes, and is probably never effected by means of organized matter, either endowed with vegetable life or subject to the will of an animated creature”
(b) Thomson, William (Lord Kelvin), "On a Universal Tendency in Nature to the Dissipation of Mechanical Energy" (Google Books) (URL), Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh for April 19, 1852, also Philosophical Magazine, Oct. 1852, also Mathematical and Physical Papers, vol. i, art. 59, pp. 511.
6. (a) As early as 1884, French astronomer M. Faye had postulated, as a matter of thermodynamics, that "life must disappear, and the grandest material works of the human race will have to be effaced by degrees under the action of a few physical forces which will survive man for a time" (Source: Henry Adam's 1910 "A Letter to American Teachers of History", pg. 149-150).
(b) Soon there after, in the words of American historian Henry Adams, the general public consensus was that "if life was to disappear, the form of vital energy known as social energy, must also, presumably go to increase the entropy of the universe" (Source: Henry Adam's 1910 "A Letter to American Teachers of History", pg. 150).
(c) Faye, M. (1985), Sur l’ Origine du Monde (“Origin of the World”), pg. 257.
7. (a) See: Libb Thims' book collection.
(b) See: List of Human Thermodynamics Pioneers.
8. Thims, Libb. (2007). Human Chemistry (Volume Two), (Ch. 16: "Human Thermodynamics", pgs. 653-702), (preview). Morrisville, NC: LuLu.
9. Rosnay, Joel de. (1975). The Macroscope - a New World Scientific System (chapter 3: "Energy and Survival, pg. 97). New York: Harper & Row Publishers.
10. Clausius, Rudolf. (1879). The Mechanical Theory of Heat, London: Macmillan & Co. (second edition), original.
11. Muller, Ingo. (2007). A History of Thermodynamics - the Doctrine of Energy and Entropy, (section: "Socio-thermodynamics", pgs. 159-164). New York: Springer.
12. Boltzmann, Ludwig. (1886). The Second Law of Thermodynamics. In B. McGinness, ed., Ludwig Boltzmann: Theoretical physics and philosophical problems: Seelct writings. Dordrecht, Netherlands: D. Reidel, 1974.
13. Thims, Libb. (2008). “On the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat and Occupation”, Journal of Human Thermodynamics, Vol. 3, Issue 1. pgs. 1-7, April.
14. See: Human thermodynamics (etymology)

External links
● HumanThermodynamics.com (Alexa: 2,100,000; Jun 09) – Global Traffic Rank.
● Human thermodynamics (homepage) - HumanThermodynamics.com.
● Journal of Human Thermodynamics - IoHT, Chicago.
● Quantcast demographics - of human thermodynamics readers.
● Human thermodynamics - Knol beta (Google).
● Human Thermodynamics – Pipl Profles.
● Human thermodynamics (term papers) - AcaDemon.com, Term Papers & Essays.