Wayne Myrvold: A tale of two sciences, both called "thermodynamics"

It has been occasionally remarked, but insufficiently appreciated, that there are two distinct sorts of endeavour that have gone by the name of “thermodynamics”. The first, which is in line with how the founders of the subject thought of it, is a theory about how agents with limited means of manipulation and limited access to information about a system can exploit its physical properties to achieve specified ends. On this conception, which I have elsewhere called the “Maxwellian view”, thermodynamics is not a theory of basic or fundamental physics, but is, rather, a resource theory (or family of resource theories), akin to quantum information theory. The second, which I will call the “Planckian view”, thermodynamics has been severed from its roots in technological considerations, and is a theory about the bulk properties of macroscopic matter.  The distinction between these two views makes a difference for the relation between thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. On the Planckian view, the relation should be one of reduction, and it is a matter of consternation that this supposed reduction is anything but straightforward. On the Maxwellian view, it is perfectly natural and appropriate for conceptions alien to physics proper (such as the notion of information) be brought to bear in discussing the relation of thermodynamics to the underlying physics.  I will argue that many of the philosophical conundrums associated with thermodynamics arise from a conflation of the two sciences. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For announcements of upcoming seminars you can visit http://www.qiss.fr/virtual-seminars.html or join our mailing list through https://groups.google.com/forum/#!for.... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About QISS The Quantum Information Structure of Spacetime (http://www.qiss.fr) is an interdisciplinary research initiative among several universities and research institutes all over the world, supported by the John Templeton Foundation through the grants https://www.templeton.org/grant/the-q... and https://www.templeton.org/grant/the-q..., coordinated from The Samy Maroun Center for Space, Time and the Quantum (http://www.spacetimeandquantum.com). The goal of QISS is to explore and connect the research domains of Quantum Information/Computing, Quantum Gravity and Quantum Foundations. Main objectives are to found the physics of quantum spacetime on an information-theoretic basis, to bring within reach empirical access to quantum gravity in 'table-top' laboratory conditions by exploiting rapid advances in quantum computing related technologies and using quantum information theoretic concepts, and to promote an extensive interaction between physicists and philosophers on the conceptual role of information in spacetime physics.