In thermodynamics, human thermodynamics is the scientific study of the energetic 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 by C.G. Darwin in 1952, is the science of the thermodynamic operation of human life.

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 in an social system, and thereby mediates the production of work. 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 stated, in reference to the development of a potential science of history thermodynamics, 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, "such a complete solution seems not impossible; but at present ...to call for the aid of another Newton." [3]

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 suppossed 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.

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: first law of thermodynamics

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]

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] The modern view that each person is a human molecule, a term coined by English physicst Charles Galton Darwin, and that sets of reactive human molecules, constitute thermodynamic systems.

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, “most such subjects are more to the future of thermodynamics rather than to its history.” In the current view, he points out that “they are struggling to be taken seriously, and to obtain admission into the field.” [11]

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 One), (preview), (Ch. 16: "Human Thermodynamics", pgs. 653-702). 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 1852, with the accompanying and explicit logic that humans are molecules found in dynamical systems being governed by the laws of statistical thermodynamics.
(b) 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), (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.

External links

• Human thermodynamics
• Journal of Human Thermodynamics
• Quantcast demographics - of human thermodynamics readers