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The entropy paradigm



John Lozier writes about the "entropy paradigm," in contrast to the "standard 
paradigm," which he says "still rules." 

What is the "standard paradigm," if not notion that entropy (and a principle 
to which it is closely related, the Second Law of Thermodynamics) places 
absolute limits on thermodynamic processes (absolute in the sense that they 
cannot be bypassed by any human intervention whatever)? I call this 
"standard" because entropy has been a bedrock concept in thermodynamics and 
because the Second Law has been unchallenged, uncontested, and 
uncontroversial for well over a century.      

William Lockeretz
Tufts University
Medford, Mass.