The Animate and the Inanimate

The Animate and the Inanimate

The Animate and the Inanimate est le principal livre du mathématicien américain William James Sidis[1].

Il traite de la possibilité d'un "univers à rebours" (reverse universe) en s'appuyant notamment sur la seconde loi de la thermodynamique. Sidis l'écrit avant 21 ans, et hésite à le publier : la première édition datera de 1925. Le livre ne connaitra pas le succès planétaire auquel son contenu brillant semblait le prédisposer. Il fait référence dans sa préface au physicien anglais Kelvin ; et le livre suit de là son cours dans un style discret[2].

Dan Mahony l'a découvert le premier avant qu'il ne soit tombé dans un oubli fatal : il se trouve que Sidis y a conjecturé des théories scientifiques très en avance sur son temps. Mahony a fait connaitre le livre à un ancien camarade de classe de Sidis à Harvard, le grand architecte Buckminster Fuller. Celui-ci, dans une lettre datant de 1979 à l'un de ses amis, se dit "enthousiasmé" et "joyeux", voyant dans l'ouvrage une "pièce cosmologique magistrale". Sidis y évoque le premier les trous noirs, qui sont à la base de la cosmologie actuelle. Il inclut dans son travail très sérieux des considérations biologiques, mathématiques et métaphysiques, et fait notamment référence à Kant.

The Animate and the Inanimate est un livre difficile d'accès, comme peuvent l'être les Principia mathematicae de Newton, et ne concerne donc qu’un public initié, si ce n'est de physiciens avertis.

Sommaire

Extraits en anglais

"Our previous consideration on the production of radiant energy from the stars indicates that such production of radiant energy is only possible where the second law of thermodynamics is followed, that is, in a positive section of the universe. In a negative section of the universe the reverse process must take place; namely, space is full of radiant energy, presumably produced in the positive section of space, and the stars use this radiant energy to build up a higher level of heat. All radiant energy in that section of space would tend to be absorbed by the stars, which would thus constitute perfectly black bodies; and very little radiant energy would be produced in that section of space, but would mostly come from beyond the boundary surface. What little radiant energy would be produced in the negative section of space would be pseudo-teleologically directed only towards stars which have enough activity to absorb it, and no radiant energy, or almost none, would actually leave the negative section of space. The peculiarity of the boundary surface between the positive and negative sections of space, then, is, that practically all light that crosses it, crosses it in one direction, namely, from the positive side to the negative side. If we were on the positive side, as seems to be the case, then we could not see beyond such surface, though we might easily have gravitational or other evidence of bodies existing beyond that surface."―CHAP XII, 60-61

Le livre est assez bref, mais très clair et son contenu est brillant tout entier. Beaucoup de domaines de la connaissance s'y trouvent embrassés, et même la psychologie, la métaphysique et la religion. L'argumentation de Sidis s'appuie particulièrement en mathématiques sur la théorie des probabilités.

Il peut être également utile de dresser le plan de ce monumental traité :

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

I The Reverse Universe (L'Univers à rebours)

II Reversible Laws (Les lois réversibles)

III Irreversibility (L'irréversibilité)

IV The Paradox (Le Paradoxe)

V The Probabilities in the Problem (Les Probabilités dans le problème)

VI Solution of the Paradox (Solution de paradoxe)

VII Théories of Life (Théories de la vie)

VIII The Extension of the Second Law (L'extension de la seconde loi)

IX The Relation Between the Tendencies (Les relations entre les tendances)

X Exothermic and Endothermic Substances (Substance exothermique et Substance endothermique)

XI Théories of the Origin of Life (Théories de l'Origine de la vie)

XII The Astronomical Universe (L'Univers Astronomique)

XIII The Nebular Hypothesis (L'hypothèse de la Nébuleuse)

XIV The Reversibility Theory of Cosmogony (La théorie de la Réversibilité de la Cosmogonie)

XV The Pseudo-Living Organisms (Les Organismes pseudo-vivants)

XVI Psychological Aspect of Reversal (L'aspect psychologique de la réversibilité)

XVII General Summary of the Theory (Sommaire général de la théorie)

XVIII Some Objections to the Reversibility Theory (Des objections à la théorie de la réversibilité)

XIX Conclusion

(Text entry by Dan Mahony, Nick Duvoisin, Jason Stanfield and Frankie Dintino)


Voir aussi

Articles connexes

Notes et références

Liens et documents externes


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