Raddai RaikhlinIn existographies, Raddai Raikhlin (1929-) (SNE:16) (CR:6), or Раддай Райхлин (Russian), is a Russian-born Israeli electronics-power engineer and social theorist noted for his 2003 book Civil War, Terrorism and Gangs, wherein he outlines a Prigoginean thermodynamics based theory of war, in which he utilizes concepts such as: fluctuation, bifurcation, temperature, entropy (entropy and social morals), degradation, pressure, ‘links’ (cohesion), force (field of forces of the hierarchy), flow (speed and pressure of flow), and ensembles: people modeled as atoms, molecules, and or quantums, among other concepts, to explain social change. [1] Raikhlin, in his preface, states that “social dynamics” was initiated by Russian-born American Pitirim Sorokin and comments that his aim will be to further this effort, summarizing the road ahead as follows:

“My conviction is that the mathematical expression of the laws of social dynamics will be similar to the laws of physics. Until then we shall have to cross a road similar to that passed by Galileo in his experiments.”

Oddly, as Raikhlin seems to be unaware, Sorokin, to note, was actual vocally against social thermodynamics and human physics (see: Contemporary Sociological Theories, 1928), which Raikhlin seems to advocate.

Overview
In the late 1980s, Raikhlin switched from electronics-power engineering to sociology. His first book in this direction was the 1991 The Theory of Automata (in Russian), wherein examined personality types he called an ‘automaton’, its features and behavior, as well as the characteristics of a society that may be formed by such personalities. His second book Fashion, focused on social cohesion, discipline, and human behavior, including such social manifestations as fashion styles, dances, religion ceremonies, art and literature, etc.

Civil War, Terrorism and Gangs (2003)
Raikhlin's 2003 Civil War, Terrorism and Gangs, wherein he outlines his thermodynamics of sociology theory. [1]
A 1999, about the Internet, Raikhlin’s was disseminating his newly-forming social-economic ideas on social temperature and entropy as follows: [2]

“I am new working successfully on the theme thermodynamics of irreversible processes which I believe describe fully the behavior of society and constitutes the scientific basis for sociology and economics. Entropy and temperature are thermodynamic parameters characterizing society and its behavior and we better get acquainted with them. What I expect? According to the laws of thermodynamics the entropy of society grows constantly and it takes a revolution with repression or war to reverse process. If we take US data for example, since the end of the Civil War until today (with the exception of the Second World War) entropy should be increasing. Since these growth of entropy cannot continue indefinitely, bifurcation sets in, i.e., a kind of civil war, but we cannot predict accurately when this will be. Such an event is dictated by fluctuation. However, another unrest of blacks like the one that shook Los Angeles would become the trigger of such bifurcation and the start of a new civil war in the US.”

These ideas came to fruition in the publication of his 2003 Civil War, Terrorism and Gangs, which although out of print, seems to be a robust and original presentation, utilizing concepts such as personal space, Erwin Schrodinger’s What is Life?, to name a few, and in which he tells how he came to first communicate his new social thermodynamics theory: [1]

“[On social] dynamics, I received a letter from an American physicist. He asked me how I measured cohesion, and I replied honestly that I didn’t know. This stimulating physicist was the first person to whom I communicated my idea of introducing the thermodynamics of irreversible systems in order to describe the behavior of society.”

Raikhlin’s 2010 Military Sociology: Collapse of the Israel Defense Forces, seems to be a Machiavellian-themed continuation of this social thermodynamics theory, with chapter section such as: Golem (see: clay creation myth), entropy of the personality, war is bifurcation, rise and fall of civilizations, etc., along with Pitirim Sorokin’s statement that Italian philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli was the first advance the idea of the cyclic development of societies. [4]
Thermodynamics of Social Systems (chapter 15)
The circa 2001 online-version contents of the end chapter 15 "Thermodynamics of Social Systems" for Raikhlin's Civil War, Terrorism and Gangs, which seems to highlight that Raikhlin is well-attuned to the difficult "boundary problem" (see: boundary, chimpanzee war) of human thermodynamics. [5]

Education
Raikhlin completed his BS in electronics engineering in 1953 at the Naval Academy after which he studied at Moscow University and Moscow Power Engineering Institute, completing his PhD in 1964. He then received a patent for a method of receiving and transmitting gravitation waves. In 1973, Raikhlin immigrated to Israel, and worked for a number of years at the Israel Institute of Technology, prior to switching to sociology.

References
1. Raikhlin, Raddai. (2003). Civil War, Terrorism and Gangs: the Systematic of Sociology and Social Dynamics (thermodynamics, 30+ pgs). BookSurge.
2. Raikhlin, Raddai. (1999). “Social Temperature & Entropy”, JiscMail.ac.uk, Sep. 15.
3. Raikhlin, Raddai. (2005). The Art of Government: a Guidebook for Leaders (abs). Authors Online Ltd.
4. Raikhlin, Raddai. (2010). Military Sociology: Collapse of the Israel Defense Forces (translator: Tanya Chepkova) (abs). CreateSpace.
5. Contents (Civil War, Terrorism and Gangs) – Raikhlin.co.il.

External links
● Home – Raikhlin.co.il.
● Site comments (contact info) – Raikhlin.co.il.
● Raikhlin, Raddai – WorldCat Identities.