~ Maxwell's demon is a thought experiment
created by the physicist James Clerk Maxwell
in 1867 in which he suggested how the second
law of thermodynamics might hypothetically
be violated. (Wikipedia)
Imagine a demon guarding a trapdoor
between two cells, which it opens
as soon a fast-moving molecule
approaches. After some time, this being
succeeds in capturing all the fast ones
in cell B and the slow ones in cell A;
their grouping is meant to demonstrate
the nature of a pure state, which doesn't
actually exist in this model, since
the demon will have expended energy in quickly
opening and closing that door: fifty times?
sixty? a hundred? Though the temperature
in one cell might have cooled and the other's
become hot as a sauna, he'll also have
worked up a sweat by then; rolled up
his sleeves, unzipped his vest. Maybe
he's ticked off at not getting that job
promotion, at causing his wife to leave
because of his obsessive tracking of her
every move. In other words, the nature
of time's arrow points from order
to disorder; and the present
has moved from the past to a future
that's famously difficult to control.
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