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THERMAL_DREAMING

                                             March 14, 2010
                                                     
In Kim Stanley Robinson's                            
"Antarctica", there are some      FIRE_DOWN_BELOW
hints that Robinson doesn't                          
have a great feel for                  In "Red Mars", there's a
thermodynamics.                        suggestion that the kids born
                                       on Mars are adapting to their
     There's talk about how            environment, developing an
     easy it is to drill               ability to generate heat
     tunnels in the ice with           internally... but we *all*
     the new laser ice                 have that ability, it's just
     borers, as though the             that it takes energy to do it.
     power doesn't have to                           
     come from somewhere.                     You can't get something
                                              for nothing-- some people
        (There's a tubeway cut                seem to know that intuitively,
         in the ice, a slide                  and some are incurable
         you can ride down into               optimists.
         a subterranean hot                          
         pool... a notion                            
         reminscent of                               
         Heinlein's "Menace                          
         From Earth".)                               
                                                         
                This remains a very common failing...
                thermodynamics is a key part of        
                understanding of the universe, it's     
                implications are everywhere, and yet    
                there are many educated citizens who 
                don't grasp the basics.                  
                                                         


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