The two cultures
The two cultures
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0) This is the game.
1) You can't win.
2) You can't get even.
3) You can't get out of the game.
This is the ingenious way of describing the four laws of thermodynamics by C.P. Snow.
The zeroth law was actually the fourth because it was discovered later than the other laws but more fundamental than them. What it means is you are a part of the system (The Universe in the broadest sense). You are in the game. When you eat rice it changes to some energy which keeps your body temperature around 36 degree Celsius, high enough for heat to flow from your skin to the air. It warms up the room. The heat escapes to the outside your house and goes to somewhere. But it never disappears from the system you are in.
The first law says that in this game you can't get more energy than you bring into it.
The second law suggests that whatever you do it accompanies with some waste of energy. So you are bound to get less than you paid. You can't even break even.
In short, what the first and second law tells you is that there is no such thing as a free lunch.
The third law suggests that you can't get out of the system whatever you do; even if you die. In other words you can't even die. Material can't die (cannot reach the absolute zero temperature.)
In order to fully understand the four laws you need to study the thermodynamics whether or not your major was the humanities(文系). His metaphorical explanation above is a best effort from the science side to convey a concept of one fundamental theory of physics to artistic intellectuals. Still I wonder if humanity majors can get it right. There is not an easier way. It is left to the humanities side to learn more about the sciences. He worried about the breakdown of communication between the two cultures. Carl Sagan (he of the enlightening book "Cosmos") was anxious about it too. Apparently the humanities side is more to be blamed for that when so many people believe in the power of the Kiyomasa-well power spot.
