Maxwell's Demon and the Golden Apple: Global Discord in the New Millennium

Contents

Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction. Navigating the Chaos of Contemporary World Politics: Network versus No-work 1 1 Understanding the Language of Energy: Why Entropy Does Not Herald Doomsday 28 2 Entropy as Metaphor: Pattern Recognition, Time’s Arrow, and the Big Chill 35 3 The Multidimensions of Disorder: Thermodynamics and World Politics 44 4 The Role of Emerging Powers in the Age of Entropy; or, What Happens When the Sheriff Leaves Town and Anonymous Moves In 61 5 How Power Diffusion Works to a State’s Advantage: This Is Not Your Great-Grandfather’s Multipolar World 81 6 Rising Entropy at the Macro Level: The World Is Not Flat in Purgatory 94 7 Rising Entropy at the Micro Level: Information Overload and the Advent of Truthiness 122 8 Maxwell’s Demon and Angry Birds: Big Data to the Rescue? 135 Notes 161 Index 191 This page intentionally left blank ...