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From: "Lawrence B. Crowell"                  Subject:    maxwell question                 Date: 02/27/97

'debunking Maxwell's Demon'

> A brief inquiry:
>
> To date, which thinkers have given the best critical arguments debunking Maxwell's Demon?
>
> 

This has been examined by Benioff and Bennet with respect to the Sziliard engine. In effect the Maxwell demon must record a vast amount of information in order to perform the task of separating molecules of high velocity from those of low velocity. In order to do this there is a certain amount of free energy that is required to store each bit of information. In the requisite balance of storing information the change in the Gibb's free energy required to perform this task, &G = &E - T&S, is such that the entropy produced is a measure of energy unavailable for work that is greater than the energy provided by the increased temperature difference. In effect the Maxwell demon is reduced to being a kind of computational refridgerator.

Lawrence B. Crowell