The imaginative speculation was first
proposed by Clerk Maxwell.' Maxwell asks
us to imagine a closed cylinder with
two compartments filled with gas. We are
further asked to imagine a little being with
the capability of observing the
molecular motion of these gases, which,
of course, is their heat, since heat
is the motion of molecules. Maxwell then
proposes that, since the demon can see
the molecules, he could by manning a trap
door sort them. He could let all
the fast molecules go through the trap
door into one compartment and let all
slow-moving molecules go through the trap
door in the opposite direction into the
other compartment. This passage
of heat from one compartment into
another would provide energy to do work
with no loss of heat. Presumably in such an
arrangement the second law of
thermodynamics would not operate
and work would have been accomplished
with a decrease rather than an increase in
entropy. This seeming defiance of
the second law is intriguing because of
its implications for man and his world.
If the reverse of entropy is possible, man's
future is truly limitless. Maxwell's
demon implies a perpetually operating
mechanical device with inexhaustible fuel.
With such a device man could
differentiate the universe into structures
that negate the progress toward the chaos
of total entropy. Of course, one could
simply take the position that the whole
thing is ridiculous because no
such demon is possible. A more
satisfactory response stems from pointing
out that even the necessary circumstance of
observation would require the expenditure
of heat and, hence, there is, despite
the seeming absence of heat loss, an
inevitable occurrence of entropy.
As Norbert Weiner and others who have
considered the paradox have pointed out,2
the demon himself would through the
process of heat loss reach a point
where he could not function. Thus, the
second law is not really challenged by this
thought experiment.
In respect to our consideration of science
as a form of communication, it is
interesting for us to note the form in
which the scientific speculation is
cast. There is indeed a verifiable pattern
in nature that we can call the second law
of thermodynamics, just as there are


gases and cylinders and compartments,
but there is in nature, to the best
of anyone's knowledge, no Maxwell demon.
This probing of scientific fact was
couched in terms of projected experience.
That is, it is a scientific metaphor in
which the scientific law is examined
through the use of a hypothetical set of
circumstances. The nature of the
scientific law has been dramatized for us
by the concoction of a model with
the demon, the cylinder, the gases and the
compartments all being features of the
model. Used in this sense the term
"model" means a totality constructed to
represent the functioning of the
concepts that one is intending to
present.
That there would be a poem considering
such matters as those just discussed
seems dubious; yet it is no distortion to
say that Robert Frost's poem "The
West-Running Brook"' is, indeed, a poem
about the second law of thermodynamics.
The poem is constructed in the form
of a dialogue between a man
and a woman recently wed. The
couple converse about a stream that
they have come to. The stream strikes
them as being paradoxical since, unlike
every other stream in the area,
it runs west rather than running east
toward the sea. The woman suggests that
the stream, in operating contrary to the
usual direction of things in the area,
is like the couple themselves,
who function in their relationship
according to principles contrary to the
customary arrangements between couples.
Her husband carries the discussion
of contraries to an even higher level of
implication. He notes that in the stream
itself there is a wave that persists
as a turning of the course of the
water back toward the source rather than
flowing with the main direction of the
stream. He compares this constant
swirling white crest to human
existence itself:
. . .that white wave runs counter to itself
It is from that in water we were from
Long, long before we were from any creature.
It is the nature of this wave, he
continues, to appear to remain changeless
and constant while it does, in fact,
change and dissipate.


167 a
I