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  • Natalia Ares: Electromechanics for thermodynamics at the nanoscale

In Dr. Ares's talk we learn about the connection between electromechanics and information theory. How do the fundamental laws of thermodynamics take on new complexities at the nanoscale? And how does Dr. Ares' research provide a theoretical framework to understand and harness these unique behaviours? Her research aims to experimentally investigate and revise the fundamental laws of thermodynamics to account for the crucial role of information, particularly quantum information, in regimes where quantum effects are significant and fluctuations cannot be averaged out. Ares research group set up intricate experiments that combine thermodynamic elements like heat baths and pistons with quantum systems to test these theoretical hypotheses.

Keywords: Electromechanics for thermodynamics at the nanoscale, Ares, IAF Information Fuel TWCF

    Natalia Ares and her team are clearly doing great work in researching and mathematically representing difficult to access aspects of the world.

    Of course, the reason we can navigate the world (e.g. walk down a paved street, or chop our way through a jungle, or sail the seas), and make tools and build houses and skyscrapers, and research and investigate the world, and make new things based on this research, is because there exists relationships between categories that can potentially be mathematically represented, and potentially utilised.

    But even without representing these relationships mathematically, we and other living things have always been able to use the world to our own advantage because of the security of the underlying relationship infrastructure of the world.

    So, from a philosophy of physics point of view, this research, and mathematical representation of relationships, is nothing new. The philosophical issue is that this relationship infrastructure is not enough to make a world. The philosophical issue is: what is animating the world? Many people seem to think that energy animates the world, but energy is just another category in an equation, just like mass or spatial position are categories in an equation.

    The late physicist John Archibald Wheeler put it this way in 1972: “You see, these equations can’t fly. But our universe flies. We’re still missing the single, simple ingredient that makes it all fly.” https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/John+Wheeler

    In 2024, I would estimate that almost 100% of physicists and mathematicians remain totally blind to the fact that human beings themselves (e.g. the physicists and mathematicians) are the underlying secret ingredient that is animating their equations. While the equations of physics model some aspects of the world, the physicists themselves are unknowingly modelling the aspects of the world “that makes it all fly.”

    So, what DOES animate the world is: 1) the aspect of the world that differentiates/ discerns difference in (i.e. is conscious of) the categories and numbers; and 2) the aspect of the world that moves the numbers that apply to the categories. These 2 aspects of the world can’t be represented by physicists’ equations. These 2 aspects of the world can only be represented by the type of logical connective symbols used in computer programs.

      Lorraine Ford
      (continued)

      Teasing out what is going on behind the delta symbols:

      The delta symbols used in physics’ law-of-nature equations can be seen as a crude attempt by physicists to model both the above-mentioned consciousness of number difference for a category (see 1 above) and the actual cause of the number movement involved (see 2 above), as if these aspects of the world can be brushed under the carpet and subsumed into the law-of-nature relationships. It could be construed that use of the delta symbols is all about trying to hide necessarily-existing aspects of the world under the carpet and trying to deny that these aspects of the world (see 1 and 2 above) must logically exist.

      But in fact, it is the very basic source of the “information” aspect of the world that physicists have hidden from themselves, behind the delta symbols. When one teases out what is going on behind the delta symbols, one comes across the basic information aspect of the world, which is the aspect of the world that can only be properly modelled by statements that include logical connective symbols like: IF, AND, OR, IS TRUE, and THEN, i.e. the type of symbolic statements used in computer programs.

      Meanwhile, physicists do their measurements, and get a crude measure of the “information” held by the system, while at the same time continuing to deny to themselves that any underlying reality to these numbers must logically exist.

        Lorraine Ford
        I should add that these symbols (IF, AND, OR, IS TRUE, and THEN) represent the very basis of the mathematics of the world: they do not represent the consequence of the mathematics of the world.

          Lorraine Ford
          I would like to tease out what is going on behind the delta symbols, that represent number difference for a category, in physics’ equations that represent law-of-nature relationships between categories.

          These equations purportedly represent nothing but deterministic relationships; but in fact, hidden behind the delta symbols lies the non-deterministic information aspect of the world.

          Clearly, it is necessary to see the world in terms of number difference, rather than absolute numbers applying to categories like spatial position and time; for at least some categories, it seems likely that absolute numbers can’t actually exist, only number difference can exist.

          Also, it is necessary to see the world in terms of movement and change, more particularly, number change.

          However, the delta symbols can also be seen as a crude attempt by physicists to hide and minimise logically necessary aspects of the world. What is hidden behind the delta symbols relates to necessary, there-and-then, on-the-spot aspects of the world:

          • The logically necessary, there-and-then, on-the-spot, aspect of the world that is aware/ conscious of the number difference for a category; and
          • The logically necessary, there and then, on-the-spot, agency aspect of the world that is causing any number jumps for a category.

          These very basic consciousness and agency aspects of the world, which are hidden behind the delta symbols, can only be properly modelled by statements containing the types of logical connective symbols used in computer programs, like IF, AND, OR, IS TRUE, and THEN.

          These “Maxwell's demon” aspects of the world, which can be represented by IF, AND, OR, IS TRUE, and THEN symbols, are the very basis of the mathematics of the world. The “Maxwell's demon” aspects of the world represented by IF, AND, OR, IS TRUE, and THEN symbols, are not the consequence of the mathematics of the world.

            Lorraine Ford
            It’s time to “get over it” for the idea that information is an abstractly existing mathematically derived entity that floats in the mythical ether.

            Science is not just about doing experiments; science is also about how to realistically/ correctly represent the world. And the correct way to represent the most basic information in the world is:

            (category = number) IS TRUE,

            where an example of a category would be mass or position, and where the number is more likely a relative number than an absolute number, and where the “IS TRUE” is from a point of view.

            Slightly more complex information, once again from a point of view, can be represented as e.g.:

            (category1= number1 IS TRUE) AND (category2= number2 IS TRUE) AND (category3= number3 IS TRUE).

            Yet more complex information is derived from analysis and collation of this lower-level information, which once again, IS TRUE , but only from the point of view of the entity that has done the analysis and collation.

            And this is the assumption that is actually made when it comes to Maxwell’s demon. Maxwell’s demon does not obtain information from the ether. Maxwell’s demon cannot obtain high-level information about the surrounding world until the surrounding world has interacted with Maxwell’s demon, and Maxwell’s demon has mathematically analysed and collated this low-level information. Ultimately, the only information that Maxwell’s demon can ever have is self-information, i.e. information that IS TRUE from the point of view of the demon.

              Lorraine Ford
              So,

              1) a high-level Maxwell’s demon, who must first analyse and collate the results of his own eyes’ interactions with photons coming from his surroundings in order to even become aware that a fast-moving molecule is approaching the door between the chambers, and who is expected to respond to this analysis by voluntarily moving his hand to open the door (note: the deterministic laws of nature are not initiating his hand movement because the laws of nature can’t analyse and collate, and can’t respond to an analysis)

              is different to

              2) a low-level Maxwell’s demon, maybe a molecule, which is not aware of any bigger chambers-with-interconnecting-door situation, but because "he" doesn’t do much analysis, he might almost wholly be responding to laws of nature if a photon, interacting with his molecular self, causes part of himself to move (i.e. causes a molecular gate to open or shut).

              Both situation 1) and situation 2) need to be represented in terms of IF, AND, OR, IS TRUE and THEN, as well as law of nature relationships. But with situation 2) there is not so much IF, AND, OR, IS TRUE and THEN.

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