The Animate and the Inanimate

William James Sidis (1898 - 1944)

Sidis wrote The Animate and the Inanimate to elaborate his thoughts on the origin of life, cosmology, and the potential reversibility of the second law of thermodynamics through Maxwell's Demon, among other things. It was published in 1925, but it has been suggested that Sidis was working on the theory as early as 1916. One motivation for the theory appears to be to explain psychologist and philosopher William James's "reserve energy" theory, which proposed that people subjected to extreme conditions could use "reserve energy". Sidis' own "forced prodigy" upbringing was a result of testing the theory. The work is one of the few that Sidis did not write under a pseudonym. - Summary by Wikipedia

Genre(s): Astronomy, Physics & Mechanics

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 00 Preface Leon Harvey
00:06:05
Play 01 I. The Reverse Universe Leon Harvey
00:08:42
Play 02 II. Reversible Laws Leon Harvey
00:04:25
Play 03 III. Irreversibility Leon Harvey
00:08:13
Play 04 IV. The Paradox Leon Harvey
00:16:05
Play 05 V. The Probabilities in the Problem Leon Harvey
00:04:56
Play 06 VI. Solution of the Paradox Leon Harvey
00:12:30
Play 07 VII. Theories of Life Leon Harvey
00:13:52
Play 08 VIII. The Extension of the Second Law Leon Harvey
00:11:43
Play 09 IX. The Relation Between the Tendencies Leon Harvey
00:05:44
Play 10 X. Exothermic and Endothermic Substances Leon Harvey
00:08:41
Play 11 XI. Theories of the Origin of Life Leon Harvey
00:11:06
Play 12 XII. The Astronomical Universe Leon Harvey
00:26:43
Play 13 XIII. The Nebular Hypothesis Leon Harvey
00:20:09
Play 14 XIV. The Reversibility Theory of Cosmogony Leon Harvey
00:09:03
Play 15 XV. The Pseudo-Living Organisms Leon Harvey
00:10:54
Play 16 XVI. Psychological Aspect of Reversal Leon Harvey
00:15:25
Play 17 XVII. General Summary of the Theory Leon Harvey
00:13:06
Play 18 XVIII. Some Objections to the Reversibility Theory. XIX. Conclusion Leon Harvey
00:07:47