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How Did We Get Here? The Tangled History of the Second Law of Thermodynamics

Stephen Wolfram

But in 1798 Benjamin Thompson (Count Rumford) (1753–1814) measured the heat produced by the mechanical process of boring a cannon, and began to make the argument that, in contradiction to the caloric theory, there was actually some kind of correspondence between mechanical energy and amount of heat.

Energy 88
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Remembering the Improbable Life of Ed Fredkin (1934–2023) and His World of Ideas and Stories

Stephen Wolfram

It didn’t help that his knowledge of physics was at best spotty (and, for example, I don’t think he ever really learned calculus). Richard Feynman and I would get into very fierce arguments. But it also led him to the idea that the universe must be a giant cellular automaton—whose program he could invent. It’s just my nature.