The Most Incontrovertible Law of Physics

4min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Antrope can only either stay the same or increase. This is regarded as the most inexorable, unavoidable law of physics. It had its origin in the study of thermo dynamics. The number of microscopic ways we can rearrange the system to have the same total energy is bigger. If a system has more micro states available to it, it will take that configuration a micro state you made.

Of all the scenarios that keep astrophysicist Sandra Faber up at night, it's not the Earth's increasing volcanism, the loss of photosynthesis, or even the impact of a massive asteroid. Rather, it's the collapse she's certain will result from the unbridled growth of the world's economies. Join Faber and EconTalk host Russ Roberts as they explore what the most inexorable law of physics has to do with economics and whether the world's growing economies pose a problem or provide the solution for the finiteness of planet Earth.