is the irreversibility we see a fundamental property of nature [prigogine]

8/9/2019 Is the Irreversibility We See a Fundamental Property of Nature [Prigogine]

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Order out of Chaos

Ilya Prigogine, Isabelle Stengers, and Heinz R. Pagels

Citation: Phys. Today 8(1), 97 (1985); doi: 10.1063/1.2813716

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2813716

View Table of Contents: http://www.physicstoday.org/resource/1/PHTOAD/v38/i1

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s d i e i r r e v e r s i b i l i t y

w e s e e a f u n d a m e n t a l p r o p e r t y o f n a t u r e

llyaPrigogine and Isabelle Stengers

antam, New York, 1984.$8.95

Heinz R Pagels

The observation of the gra dual

tes wh at physicists call time 's

irreversibility of time.

Yet, if we were able to see a movie of

we would not be able to tell

t ime;from a microscop-

ion. How is it possible then, tha t

This profound question, first ad-

f motion. In

Boltzmann's

The origin of irreversible time is the

Order Out of Chaos

by

physicist at Rock efeller University. He

The osmic ode and a

mathematical physicist llya Prigogine

and Isabelle Stenge rs. The book is

divided into three parts. The first,

The Delusion of the Un iversal, is a

philosophical history of physics with

quotations from Kant, Diderot, Hegel,

Bergson andWhitehead,among others.

These citations from eminent philos-

ophers sound somewhat like that of an

ineffectual chorus before the unfolding

drama of modern science. The authors

tak e issue with th e reductionist tenden-

cy of science, wh at they call the basic

m yth of science, held by most contem-

porary scientists, including Einstein.

In Einstein 's words, this m yth is the

view th at the the general laws of

physics

.

claim to be valid for any

natu ral phenomena whatsoever and

tha t it ought to be possible to arriv e at

the description . . of every na tur al pro-

cess, including life, by means of pure

deduction.

The final two parts of the book

attempt to provide the scientific sup-

port for the integrative philosophy

espoused by the au tho rs. In the second

par t, The Science of Com plexity, one

finds clear descriptions of expe rimen ts

and theoretical models th at serve as an

introduction to the formidable subjects

of statistical mechanics, nonlinear dy-

namics and the study of physical sys-

tems far from equilibrium . But most

physicists who devote their lives to

these subjects will find their treatment

distur bing . For while this book con-

tains much that is new and correct, all

too often that which is correct is not

new and that which is new is not

PHYSICS TODAY / JANUARY 1985 9 7Downloaded 21 Sep 2012 to 130.207.50.37. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://www.physicstoday.org/about_us/terms


3/4

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correct.

Prigogine had the good taste to work

upon themost profound problem sin

physics. To his own surprise (as noted

in the foreword) andth a t ofother

scientists,hereceived theNobel Prize

in chemistry in1977. Incollaboration

with

P

Glansdorff,

he

devised The

Univ ersal Evolution Criterion, which

was misinterpreted by some scientists

to

be an

im por tant generalization

to

far-from-equilibrium

system s of earlier

mathematical work ofBoltzmann and

Lars Onsager (the Norwegian physi-

cist)onclose-to-equilibrium thermody-

namicsystems. But, already in1974,it

was clear from the critical work of the

Americans Ronald Fox and Joel Keizer

tha t this univer sal criterio n was not

universal. Much tohis credit, Prigo-

gineinthis book finally abandon shis

claim

to

have found

a

uni vers al crite-

rion, which figures prominently in his

previous writings. Reversing hispre-

vious view completely,

he

writes,

In

contrast with close-to-equilibrium

sit-

uations,

the

behavior

of a

far-from-

equilibrium system becomes highly

specific.

The idea that living organismsare

examples of self-organ izing physical

systems

isnot

new. Boltzmann, who

admired Darw in's evolutionary theory,

described theleavesofa tree growing

in sunlight asexamplesoforganizing

open systems. Alan Turing,

the

Eng-

lish mathematical genius, began

the

modern theory

of

chem ical self-organi-

zationinhis 1952 sem inal paper, The

Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis.

This work is referred to in one sentence

in this book. The main idea

is

that if

the physical parameters that charac-

terize chemical reactions that might

occurin anorganism exceed critical

values, then

the

reactions may exhibit

unusual self-organizing behavior.

Yet,inviewofwha t isknownby

biologists, the suggestion of the authors

that life, farfrom being outsidethe

natural order, appearsas thesupreme

expression

of

the

self-organizing

pro-

cesses is simply incorre ct. Most scien-

tists would agree with the critical view

expressed in

Problems o Biological

Physics (Springer-Verlag, 1981)by the

biophysicist L. A. Blumenfeld, when he

wrote: Themean ingful macroscopic

ordering ofbiological s tru ctu re does

not arise duetothe increase of certain

parameters

or a

system above their

critical values. These structuresare

built according to program-like compli-

cated architectural structures,the

meaningful information created during

many billionsofyearsofchemical and

biological evolution being used. Life

isa consequence ofm icroscopic,not

macroscopic, organization.

In thefinal part ofthe book, From

BeingtoBecoming, theautho rs take

on

the

giants Boltzm ann, Einstein,

Circle number37 onReader Service Card

8

PHYSICS TODAY/ JANUARY

1985Downloaded 21 Sep 2012 to 130.207.50.37. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://www.physicstoday.org/about_us/terms


4/4

and just about everyone else

idea of time

own

theorigin ofmacro-

is a conse-

of a previously unrecognized

in

the microscopic

of

physics down to all levels

toquantumlevelsprovided tha t

of complexity is main-

In

short, they mainta in tha t

irreversibility is notderived from

but is

elf fund ame ntal. The virt ueoftheir

is th a t it resolves w hat they

a

clash of doctr ines about

of

time

in

physics.

Most physicists would agree that

is

neith er emp irical evidence

to

nor is there a

matical necessityforit. Thereis

clash of doctrin es. Only Prigogine

d

a

few collaborators hold

to

these

in

spite

of

their

tolivein the twilight

ofscientific credibility .

Grea t advances in ma in s t r e a m

study of non linear dynam-

theunders tanding ofcriticalphe-

by Kenneth Wilson, Leo Ka-

noff and M ichael Fisher; the exciting

and the

of

black holes

bySteven H awkingand Ja-

bBekensteinportend

a

deep unifi-

of our understandingof nature .

or none of this

ars in this book. The reader of this

the r distorted pictu re of wh at is one

f the most exciting ar eas of researchin

inParticle

Gottfried andV F Weisskopf

1984.

A D Martin

1984.

of

but

rigorous underg raduate

theincreas-

and

forpro-

on

early-stage

in

and conceptual tools being

at each step,the

ems encountered

in

trying

to

in-

all this into courses already

ng. Thu s the publi-

of a

textbook based

on the

struggletoaccomplishthisespecially

in particle physics, where develop-

ments have been rapid and profound

duringthelast twodecadesissureto

be greetedbystudentsand instructors

alike with a combination of relief,

enthusiasm, and just

a

little doubt tha t

it will work.

The two books reviewed her e

a re

surveysof the newphysics ofparti-

cles,and while the one by Gottfried and

Weisskopf is not intended specifically

as

a

graduate text

in

the field,

it

still

deserves considerationas an introduc-

tion

for

the sophisticated novice.

Al-

though both could be used profitably by

afew undergraduates, these books will

find their largest audiences among

budding particle physicistsin theearly

stages

of

graduate study, and among

workers

in

other branches

of

physics

wishing

to

acquaint themselves w ith

those developmentsofthe la st 20 years

in particle theory

and

phenomenology

tha t

are now

firmly established.

In fact,in thefirst sentence oftheir

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is the irreversibility we see a fundamental property of nature [prigogine]

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