In hmolscinece, Richard D. Piccard (c.1947-) is an American physicist noted, in human thermodynamics education, for his course on entropy and human activity taught at Ohio University during the years 1998 to 2006, albeit one based on the skewed views of American economist Jeremy Rifkin and his Entropy: Into the Greenhouse World (1989). [1]“Both world population and per capita consumption are increasing exponentially. Burning fossil fuels creates toxic byproducts and also 'greenhouse gases' that accelerate global warming. Extractive industries (e.g., agriculture and mining) reduce the natural resources available to future generations. Matter and energy are conserved, but physical processes transform both into forms less readily useful (thereby "increasing entropy").
We apply this concept of entropy to human activity, critically examining works by advocates of solar and nuclear power, from the viewpoints of, and using the patterns of inquiry of, several disciplines (e.g., history, theology, economics, physics, politics, engineering, biology, chemistry, ethic [entropy ethics], and sociology). Using Rifkin’s 1989 book Entropy: Into the Greenhouse World, which sets forth the thesis that this concept of entropy has a much broader applicability, in such fields as social science, politics, health, etc., the course explores whether this broadening of application makes sense. The immediate goal for students is to try to get some understanding of what entropy means when the term is used in its home territory, physical science and engineering. On this basis, the problem immediately arises when applying entropy to society is that the basic definition of entropy is mathematical. As such, the course focuses on the philosophical aspects (i.e. philosophical thermodynamics) rather than the practical aspects of entropy; and avoids mathematics, for the most part.”
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| Screenshot of the overview homepage for the course "Entropy and Human Activity" taught at Ohio University. |
