The Physics of Life by Adrian Bejan - Book Review

In this book, a mechanical engineering professor attempts to explain all of nature using a term he himself coined, the "constructal law" in which "life is movement that evolves freely, in both animate and inanimate spheres" (p. 2). Adrian Bejan sees little difference between energy flow in life and non-life. Hierarchies are good, and so are oligarchies and slavery. Forget scary projections of overpopulation, scarcity of resources and climate change, because there's a happy S-curve for every human undertaking:

"Using more fuel does not mean that climate change is out of control. Humanity will adapt in order to persist, to keep on flowing, which means to live... If a new technology tends to kill us, like the trains at railroad crossings, then people invent flashing signs and build overpasses, and keep moving." (p. 145)

Adrian Bejan conveniently glosses over the fact that many dominant species eventually go extinct when their environment turns against them, as happened with the dinosaurs, the Mayans, and the former inhabitants of Easter Island. Past civilizations have been terribly bad at adapting to environmental changes that take a long time to swing into effect, as will be the case with climate change. Try building an overpass when your entire city is underwater, Mr. Mechanical Engineer!

Getting angry over 250+ pages of  the kind of drivel that oligarchists love to hear did lead to some productive new thought, however. I have now developed an equation for the organic ecological learning machines that are living organisms, which I will share in my next post.

By the way, I am now on Wattpad. :-)