Sex and the Second Law of Thermodynamics
Date: 10/09/13
Time: 5:30pm
Audience: Public
Sponsored By: EvoS Club, SA, EvoS Program, Honors Program
Location: CSB Auditorium
Contact: Briana Tauber, x2379, btauber25@hawkmail.newpaltz.edu
Web Site: https://www.facebook.com/events/340352296100457/
Join us for a talk by Howard Bloom, author of "The God Problem: How a Godless Cosmos Creates" and "The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History."
Sex and the Second Law of Thermodynamics:
At the turn of the 19th century, Sigmund Freud proposed something absurd, his concept of libido, the idea that humankind was driven by sex. Was Freud crazy? Or was he right? Why? And how does our sexual obsession relate to the evolution of the cosmos? How does it relate to two rules that imply that sex should not and can not exist: the principle of least effort and the 2nd law of thermodynamics?
Is sexual selection a least-effort proposition? Is it the most energy-efficient way to a goal? And what goal could that possibly be? Is plant sex, with its extravagant use of the advertising devices we call flowers, maximizing the universe's entropy? Is the peacock's tail a sign of a thrifty cosmos? How about your sexual and romantic obsessions as you read this sentence and secretly covet the body of a person ten feet away from you? Do these things hint that the cosmos is very different than the thermodynamics obsessive beliefs? And what does that mean for the way we look at strange things like psychology?
Book signing and reception (FREE FOOD!!) to follow!
