
A 2004 oil and water cartoon, alluding to Empedocles premise that people who hate each other cannot mix, similar to how oil and water cannot mix. [8]

A 2004 oil and water cartoon, alluding to Empedocles premise that people who hate each other cannot mix, similar to how oil and water cannot mix. [8]

In human thermodynamics, integration and segregation thermodynamics refers to the thermodynamic study of the mixing and separations of cultural groups in a community or population. A related term, for instance, is entropy of mixing, which applies to mixing of human molecules.

Chemistry
In circa 450BC, Greek philosopher Empedocles famously stated, among his many chemical aphorisms, that:

“People who love each other mix like water and wine; people who hate each other segregate like water and oil.”

In 1908, Goethe, in his Elective Affinities, referred to oil and water, and used the character Mittler the “mediator” as a type of human catalyst able to bring about mixing and or reaction between to people.

In 1914, English-born American engineer William Fairburn, in his Human Chemistry, argued that certain human chemicals (people) can at as human emulsifiers acting to bring about mixture of unmixing types; for example: [6]

“Many human chemists waste their own time and strength and annoyingly harass their workers by endeavoring to compel non-mixing types to produce the best results when placed in direct personal contact. Efficient team work is impossible if non-mixing human chemicals are brought together. Oil and water may be put into the same bottle, but no chemist can make them of themselves permanently mix. They instinctively draw apart and no matter how much the chemist sputters, scolds, and shakes up the bottle the two fluids separate as soon as he leaves them alone, the oil rising to the upper part of the bottle as the water sinks to the lower part.”

Fairburn continues, in what eludes to the idea of the human emulsifier (similar to Goethe’s character Mittler, “the mediator” or human catalyst):

“A trained chemist would not attempt to mix oil and water, but employers, managers and foremen of labor are constantly endeavoring to bring about a corresponding physical impossibility. If, however, the chemist adds a third substance—soda or gum arabic—the oil and water will blend; even petroleum can be emulsified. The human chemist with his tact and good judgment, can often introduce among his non-mixing men, a natural harmonizer, a man who promotes good fellowship and teamwork.”

Likewise, in his 1948 book We Human Chemicals, American human chemist Thomas Dreier had one section entitled “Oil and Water Can be Made to Mix”, in which he explains that some “human chemicals” do not mix because their ideas are naturally antipathetic. [7]

Thermodynamics
In 1936, Pierre Teilhard, via his omega point theory, seemed to think that the future will bring an end to racism and that everyone in the world will live harmoniously together.

In 1990, American law professor Richard Delgado, in what has been called his law of racial thermodynamics, stated that: [9]

“There is change from one era to another, but the net quantum of racism remains exactly the same. Racism is neither created nor destroyed.”

In 1994, German thermodynamicist Jurgen Mimkes, began using phase diagram models of integrations and segregations of cultures in society; via the analogy of segregation in populations to the miscibility gap in solutions and alloys. He studied, for instance, the integration and segregation of protestants and catholics in Northern Ireland and come to various conclusions about mixed marriages. Mimkes, in his "Binary Alloys as a Model for a Multicultural Society" (1995), published in the Journal of Thermal Analysis, elaborated on these view. [4]

In 1998, Venezuelan chemical engineer Erich Muller, a noted expert on the aggregations and separations of fluids, wrote out a short article on the thermodynamics of social aggregations, such as races, social classes, ghettos, Marxist societies, etc., postulating that a force similar to the van der Waals force or London dispersion force acts in societies to group and segregate individuals according to stability requirements. He defined segregation in systems of molecules, for instance, as intermolecular racism. [2]

In 2005, German physicist Ingo Müller, in his Entropy and Energy: A Universal Competition, citing Mimkes, devoted an entire chapter to the subject of socio-thermodynamics, wherein he goes through an example of a metaphorical system of hawks and doves competing for the same limited resource, comparing the segregation and mixing of the two populations to that of physico-chemical systems separations defined by phase diagrams. [2]

In 2010, Johann Raatz, in his “Multicultural Thermodynamics” video, discussed his view that multiculturalism is directly analogous to entropy in thermodynamics. [5]

References
1. Thims, Libb. (2007). Human Chemistry (Volume One) (pg. 169). Morrisville, NC: LuLu.
2. (a) Thims, Libb. (2007). Human Chemistry (Volume Two) (Section: “Müller dispersion forces”, pgs. 629-38). Morrisville, NC: LuLu.
(b) Müller , Erich. A. (1998). “Human Societies: a Curious Application of Thermodynamics" (scan) (abstract) Chemical Engineering Education, Vol. 1, No. 3, Summer.
3. Muller, Ingo. (2005). Energy and Entropy: A Universal Competition (socio-thermodynamics, pgs. 12, 203-221). Springer.
4. (a) Muller, Ingo. (2007). A History of Thermodynamics - the Doctrine of Energy and Entropy (pgs. 163-64). New York: Springer.
(b) Mimkes' Research: Applied Thermodynamics - Physical-Socio Economics, Paderborn University, Department of Physics.
(c) Mimkes, Jürgen. (2005). "Binary Alloys as a Model for a Multicultural Society". Journal of Thermal Analysis, 43. pgs. 521-537.
5. Raatz, Johann. (2010). “Multicultural Thermodynamics” (V), Johanan Raatz, Mar 19.
6. Fairburn, William Armstrong. (1914). Human Chemistry (pgs. 17-18). The Nation Valley Press, Inc.
7. Dreier, Thomas. (1948). We Human Chemicals: the Knack of Getting Along with Everybody (pgs. 42-45). Updegraff Press.
8. Foster, Colin. (2004). “Strip art cartoon: Oil and Water”, Awkward Fumbles.
9. (a) Delgado, Richard. (1990). “Does Voice Really Matter?” Virginia Law Review, 76: 105-06.
(b) D’Souza, Dinesh. (1996). The End of Racism: Principles for a Multiracial Society (pg. 17). Simon and Schuster.

Further reading
● Müller, Ingo. (2002). Socio-thermodynamics – Integration and Segregation in a Population, P: Continuum Mechanics and Thermodynamics 14, 384-404, 2002.