1840 Indian Rebirth

Chapter 200 [Maxwell's Demon & "Guns, Germs and Steel"] Happy May Day
There is no need to say much about Maxwell's reputation. In the history of physics, physicists with higher achievements than him can be counted with half a hand.Ma Shao, as a physics student of later generations, naturally respects this great god.

Later generations have the saying of "four great beasts of physics", namely Zeno's tortoise, Laplace beast, Maxwell's demon, and Schrödinger's cat.

The "magical creature" described in this letter is the famous Maxwell's demon, which was also proposed by Maxwell in the original history, but it was much later-in Maxwell, a giant of science, the historical changes caused by the horse whistle are obviously It has been reflected.

Now Maxwell is only a teenager, and he raised this idea somewhat to Ma Shuo's surprise, although the description is quite rough.

Maxwell's demon once puzzled physicists for many years, and it was not really surrendered until the birth of information theory.

Prior to this, the best answer to this question by physicists was probably the phrase "thinking produces entropy" summarized by Carl Eckart.

So Horse Whistle took this sentence as the subject and wrote a reply letter to the young Maxwell.

"Thinking produces entropy..." Kelvin couldn't help but ponder for a while when he saw this sentence, and fell into thinking.

After Ma Shao finished writing the letter, he suddenly said: "Maybe I can post this letter in a magazine."

"In this way, I'm afraid this teenager will get too much attention." Kelvin said.

Horse Whistle: "Geniuses get more attention, which may not be a bad thing. Thomson, didn't you also become famous at a young age?"

"You seem to admire him a lot?" Kelvin asked.

"I have a feeling that this Maxwell will make extraordinary achievements." Horse Whistle said mysteriously.

He just wants to make Maxwell famous at a young age, get earlier and more attention, and then get more resources.

This may be a double-edged sword for Maxwell. He may be more fully developed because of this, but he may also be lost in the honor that comes too easily, and eventually disappear from everyone.

But in Ma Shao's view, the physical process of this world has been accelerated and distorted by him, and it will be even worse in the future. A regular version of Maxwell is dispensable.So why not try to create an unconventional version of Maxwell?
In fact, he wanted to take Maxwell as a student and train him himself.

It’s just that conditions do not allow him to stay in Europe forever, and he will return to North America after a while. Even if Maxwell is willing to go to North America with him, he may not be willing to live in the world of Indians.

Furthermore, it is impossible for him to teach Maxwell everything now, and he has to publish papers slowly with so many major scientific achievements.

Maybe there will be a chance in the future.

This open letter titled "Thinking Generates Entropy" was published quickly. Because it did not have a single formula, and the content was as popular and interesting as possible, it was also favored by the public.

For the general public, the incredible Mr. Indian has rarely published an article that can still be understood after connecting all the words, so naturally he cannot let it go.

For a time, "Thinking Generates Entropy" became a popular book for the public.

Thanks to the popularity of this open letter, Maxwell, an unknown teenager, quickly became a household name in the UK.

Everyone now knows that there is such a talented young man at the University of Edinburgh. He is not only extremely talented, studious, and enters the university early, but also has received public responses and praise from the amazing Indian scientist.

If this is put into future generations of China, it will be set up as a model, and the central media will report it, and then it will be selected as a popular positive energy material for college entrance examination essays.

Maxwell is a very low-key and humble person, and his public popularity has never been high. Therefore, it can even be said that the horse whistle's move directly raised Maxwell's public popularity to a level no less than that of later generations.

Next, let's see what kind of life trajectory this talented boy who has come under the spotlight will take.

The scientific reaction to Thinking Generates Entropy has been much calmer than the general public, after all this accessible open letter seems to simply state a basic fact: thinking also involves thermodynamic processes - which is no surprise .

No one has yet realized what lies behind Maxwell's demon...

Of course, there is another reason - Ma Shao's book has finally been published.

As soon as "Thermodynamics", which systematically expounded the preliminary results of thermodynamics, came out, it attracted the attention of all physicists. Within a few days, all physicists in the UK had a copy.

Not to be outdone, European scientists rushed to buy it one after another. As a result, "Thermodynamics" spread rapidly in the western scientific community, and the branch of physics with the same name was officially presented to the world.

The waves that "Thermodynamics" has made in the academic world are quite amazing, but compared with "Guns, Germs, and Steel", they are still pale in comparison.

After all, for something like physics, experimental data and logical reasoning are right in front of you, and you can recognize it or not.

But "Guns, Germs, and Steel" is different. This book looks like history but not history, and it looks like living things and not living things. Even after more than 100 years, it is still very fashionable, let alone in 1848.

More importantly, when Ma Shao stated his views, he hardly listed any evidence—a lot of evidence was the result of professional research in the next century, and he could not bring it out, nor could he remember it at all.

Basically, he said this: Although there is no clear evidence yet, it is not difficult to understand such a truth blabla...

It would be fine to say this from an ordinary point of view, but the core points of view in "Guns, Germs, and Steel", in this era, which one is not earth-shattering?
Horse Whistle's writing has been very restrained, and the deletions and water injection are serious. Half of the content is an advertisement for Apache, but this book inevitably caused an uproar and great controversy.

For example, he euphemistically expressed the view that "Indians have no lower IQ than whites" in the article, which caused some white racists to yell at him-you Indian savages really don't know what to do!

You know, the point of view in the original book is "Indians may have a higher IQ than whites", and it is stated explicitly, without euphemism at all.

If an Indian dared to say such a thing in a white country in this era, he might be beaten to death on the road.

So the horse whistle didn't say that, but just said that "the IQ of Indians is not lower than that of whites."

He felt that it was very humble to say this, but he did not expect that it would still attract a lot of insults.

Of course, at least in academia, such offensive remarks are still rare, and most of the controversies revolve around his views and ways of thinking.

For example, the difference in the axes of the Eurasian continent and the American continent has led to a great difference in the agricultural development of the two regions. Since the difference in latitude can lead to a large and opposite climate difference, it is much more difficult for crops to spread across latitude than across longitude. Therefore, the east-west Eurasian continent quickly developed mature agriculture, while the north-south American continent did not, which in turn led to a series of differences in civilizations.

This unprecedented point of view and strong historical materialism have had a considerable impact on the academic world.

Ma Shaoben thought that after the publication of the book, he would be able to relax a bit, but it was even worse. Scholars in the fields of biology and history approached him every day, some in newspapers and magazines, and some visited him directly in person.

"I can't take it anymore, I'm going to Lincoln." Horse Post threw away the line letter in his hand, and decided to use silence to end the endless debate.

Kelvin smiled and said, "I plan to go with you."

"why?"

"Talk to you about your book, which I just finished," Kelvin said.

"You mean... "Thermodynamics"?"

"No, it's another one. The thermodynamic building you built is quite perfect, there is nothing to argue about." Kelvin picked up "Guns, Germs, and Steel" on the bookshelf, "I was not very interested in it at first. , now I finally know why it has so much controversy.”

Horse Whistle: "..."

"Chief, someone is visiting you again." An Apache warrior came in and said, "He said he had conducted a round-the-world expedition..."

"No." Ma Shao subconsciously waved his hand, and then seemed to think of something, "What did you say, a round-the-world survey?"

"Yes."

"What's his name?" Kelvin said in broken Apache, which he had picked up by ear at the whistle and would show off now and then, though most Apaches thought he might as well speak English.

"He said his name was Charles Robert Darwin."

(End of this chapter)