In human thermodynamics, Lewis Mumford (1895-1990) was an American historian noted for his ideas on social energetics and how thermodynamics applies to theories of human activity. [1] In his 1934 Technics and Civilization, Mumford frequently made reference to the study of economic activity from the viewpoint of energy. The following is an example quote: [2]

“What are called capital gains often turn out, from the standpoint of social energetics, to be losses; while the real gains … [remain] outside the commercial scheme of accountancy.”

In 1951, in the context of religious thermodynamics, Mumford reasoned that the evil or destroying force of the universe is captured by the workings of the second law of thermodynamics: [3]

“As soon as religion, in fact, makes its God the creator and all-wise author of the universe, it must either gloss over the evils of existence at the expense of truth, or it must invoke another principle, equally at work in the universe, which brings the creator’s work to naught, defacing his creatures and defaming his beneficent intentions. Sheer logic thus drove man of the classic religions to invent the Devil or the Destroyer, the mythical equivalent of the second law of thermodynamics, who undermines all the constructive activities of life. As Kali, as Ahriman, as Satan, as Loki, the devil personifies an inescapable fact of human experience: the fact of de-building, disorganization, degradation.”

References
1. Fernández-Galiano, Luis. (2000). Fire and Memory: On Architecture and Energy (pg. 199). MIT Press (written: 1982).
2. Mumford, Lewis. (1934). Technics and Civilization (pgs. 112ff, 221ff, 373ff, 375). Harcourt, Brace and Co.
3. Mumford, Lewis. (1951). The Conduct of Life (pg. 73). Harcourt, Brace and Co.

External links
● Lewis Mumford – Wikipedia.
● Lewis Mumford – NNDB.