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

Stephen Wolfram

By 1807 the term “energy” had been introduced, but the question remained of whether it could in any sense globally be thought of as conserved. It had seemed for a long time that heat was something a bit like mechanical energy, but the relation wasn’t clear—and the caloric theory of heat implied that caloric (i.e.

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

Stephen Wolfram

But at a personal and social level it was still always a lot of fun being around Ed and being exposed to his unique intense opportunistic energy—with its repeating themes but ever-changing directions. 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).