CHAPTER VIII
THE EXTENSION OF THE SECOND LAW

We have, then, come to the conclusion that the second law
of thermodynamics is not true as a general property of matter.
It will, according to our theory, have to be omitted from the list
of the physical laws. But what is there that we can put in place
of it? We can say, in the first place, that every physical law is
reversible, or rather, to be more accurate, that if any physical
law is true, its reverse must also be true.
Furthermore, taking the conception of "mechanical efficiency,"
the second law of thermodynamics, if true, would set an upper
limit to the amount of energy a body can use; namely, whatever
difference in energy level there is. Now, if this second law is
omitted from the list of physical laws, there is no such upper
limit, there being more energy than that in the bodies, an
inaccessible fund into which all energy tends to leak. But we can
still use this limit, and express the amount of energy used by the
body as a percentage of this limit. If we consider that the
second law of thermodynamics Is no longer a general physical
law, this percentage may be 100% (neutral tendency), or less
than 100% (positive tendency), or more than 100% (negative
tendency). The mechanical efficiency of a body may thus fall into
any of the three categories, but we have seen that 100% Is a
critical point, and when the mechanical efficiency changes from
less than 100% to more than 100% or vice versa we have a
change in the appearance of the action of the body. This
critical point of mechanical efficiency constitutes the dividing
line between living and nonliving phenomena.
As we have seen, a universe following the positive
tendency cannot have existed for an infinite time past;
and the reverse of this rule must also be true, that a
universe following the negative tendency cannot continue
to exist for an infinite time in the future. Hence, if we
suppose the universe to have existed from eternity past
to eternity future, it follows that the average mechanical
efficiency of the universe, taking all parts of space and
time, must be exactly 100%. On the contrary, in our section
of space and time, though we have found instances of the
negative tendency (that is to say, life), yet the positive
tendency visibly prevails, so that the mechanical efficiency
at present of our part of the universe is considerably less
than 100%. As the probabilities are that in our part of
space for all time, or at the present moment for all space,
the mechanical efficiency of the universe is about 100%,
it follows that there must be other parts of space and
time in which the mechanical efficiency is over 100% and
such parts of space and time supply us with examples of
a reverse universe.
We have seen that the positive tendency is characterized
by a constant running down of energy levels and a storage
of energy into an inaccessible reserve store, which can in its
turn be utilized and built up again into differences of energy-
level only by the negative tendency. That is to say, the positive
tendency stores up reserve energy, and the negative tendency
once more utilizes it.
Since most of the substances within our observation
follow the positive tendency, we may obtain characteristics of
the two tendencies to some extent by observation, using our
observations for the positive tendency, and reversing for the
negative tendency. For instance, it has been observed on the
earth that there is constant dissociation of atoms going on,
especially in the case of substances of very great atomic
weight (e. g.. uranium and radium). It must be supposed that
these substances must have been there in the first place in
much larger amounts than at present, when the earth was in a
hotter condition than at present; and accordingly we might
expect, in very hot bodies such as the sun and stars, to
find many substances with large atomic weight and few
with small atomic weight, and in nebulas and newly formed
stars to find substances almost entirely with large atomic
weight, and almost no such substances as hydrogen,
helium, etc., whose atomic weight is very small. The
contrary, however, is true. In the sun, there is very little to
be seen of substances of very large atomic weight; even
such a substance as gold, which is more stable than
uranium or radium and much more common on the earth,
but with a large atomic weight, is conspicuously absent,
while hydrogen and helium are present in large quantities
(helium was first discovered in the solar spectrum as its
name indicates). Furthermore, the nearer a star is to the
nebular stage, the more conspicuously is this true; while
in nebulae, temporary stars, etc., hydrogen, which has the
very lightest atoms of any known substance, constitutes
most of the substance of the star or nebula. It thus follows
that In such hot bodies as stars and nebulae, there is an
opposite process going on, which we may call the
integration of atoms, the building up of larger atoms out
of smaller ones.
All this is occurring under the positive tendency. If we
suppose a section of the universe (either in space or in time)
in which the negative tendency prevails, the reverse will he true.
The integration of atoms will take place at lower temperatures,
the dissociation at higher temperatures. It follows, that, if we
consider a cycle In time of a body (of rather, of a large group of
bodies), or of a spatial section of the universe, while we have
two stages of mechanical efficiency, first building up reserve
energy, then using up that same reserve energy for available
energy, we have in a corresponding period a cycle of four
stages in the evolution of atoms. In the first part of our "positive"
epoch atoms are being built up, into more and more
complicated forms; in the latter part of our "positive" epoch
they are dissociated once more; during the beginning of the
"negative" epoch the atoms are re-integrated, until sufficiently
large differences of heat-level are built up to reverse the process,
and the atoms become once more dissociated. Why this
process should take place in just this way I cannot attempt to
explain; but it may easily be that both dissociation and
integration of atoms is constantly taking place, and the excess
of one over the other would differ under different circumstances.
However, be that as it may, under the neutral tendency there
would be no tendency whatever for the ultimate particles of
matter to form into bodies or compound particles; so that we
may expect that, even should the neutral tendency be found to
exist, that there would be no "neutral" bodies, but that it would
be entirely whatever the ultimate particles may be; e.g., that it
would consist of separate electrons, if, as is at present believed,
the electron is the ultimate material particle. Either the positive
or the negative tendency starts out by building up more and
more complicated atoms; but the neutral tendency does no
such thing; accordingly we can take this as one of the
characteristics of the neutral tendency. Another characteristic of
the neutral tendency would be that, though it require impenetrable
matter, yet, since any friction resulting from the motion of bodies
through it would tend to be counterbalanced by the equal negative
element of building up motion, the result would be, an apparent
lack of resistance, characteristic again only of the neutral tendency.
And, inasmuch as it is now supposed that, though radiant energy is
vibration transmitted by the ether, yet it is electrons scattered
through the ether that are in vibration, and since the ether with
its supposed electrons seems to be the only thing known that
offers no resistances to the passage of moving objects, it
follows that the ether, or the electrons it contains, is the
example of neutral tendency to be found in our universe.
But we have said before that the probability of the neutral
tendency is zero; how then does this come? As we have said
before, a zero probability is merely an extreme improbability,
but not necessarily an impossibility. For instance, if we have
a finite segment of a line, and we select a point on the line at
random, the probability that that point will be the middle point
is precisely zero, since there are on the line an infinite number
of points, of which only one is the middle point; so that
the probability of the selected point being the middle point is 1
divided by infinity, that is, zero.
C
A ________|_________ B

Or, to take another example, the probability that a point selected
in space at random will be within the earth is: the earth's volume
divided by the volume of space, which is zero since the latter
quantity is infinite. Here, there are an infinite number of possibilities
of the point being within the earth, is zero. Thus it is with the "neutral
tendency." Its probability is zero, and yet there is a chance for an
infinite amount of matter in the universe to come under it, provided
that there is infinitely more matter that is either the positive or the
negative tendency, In fact, we know from the theory of error that a
mechanical efficiency of 100%, being exactly the average of the
universe, is more probable tern any other given mechanical
efficiency, let us say 85%. And yet, in spite of that, its probability
is zero. In fact, if we figure out the probability of the position of the
universe at a given moment having come out exactly as it did, we
also arrive at the conclusion that the theoretical probability of the
universe being as it is, is 0. And yet the universe exists, in spite
of its zero probability.
Now let us consider the chemical structure of the positive and
negative tendencies. For this purpose it will be necessary to
distinguish between exothermic and endothermic compounds, that
is, between compounds on a lower level of chemical energy than
their constituents and compounds on a highwer level than their
constituents. We might expect that the former would be built up
under the positive tendency, and the latter under the negative
tendency, because the composition of the former out of their
constituents involves the conversion of some chemical energy
into heat, while the composition of an endothermic compound
from its constituents involves the conversion of heat into a
higher level of chemical energy. However, we must draw some
distinctions here. The positive and the negative tendencies
merely tend to build up respectively exothermic and endothermic
compounds. Under special circumstances exceptions can be
found.
It Is true, indeed, in general, that the negative tendency tends
to build up more and more endothermic substances; though many
exothermic substances may result, either from more exothermic
substances or where a substance, on account of its exothermic
properties, has very little chemical activity. Also, the positive
tendency does, as a whole, build up exothermic substances,
though endothermic substances may be produced, usually as a
result of a difference of energy-level higher than that of the
endothermic compound. However, whether the negative
tendency, for instance, builds up endothermic substances in
negative or in positive objects, is a question which cannot be
considered until we consider a little in relation to the reactions
on one another of the positive and negative substances. We will
accordingly proceed to investigate that.