Scientific Proof of Our Unalienable Rights: A Road to Utopia is an intriguing title for a book. In it Michael T. Takac weaves the concept of unalienable rights from Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, (life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness) with the Constructal Law of Adrian Bejan:
For a flow system to persist in time (to live) [Life], it must evolve freely [Liberty] such that it provides greater access [the pursuit of] to its currents [Happiness (positive feedback)].
The square brackets are Takac’s insertions into Bejan’s Constructal Law.
I preface my remarks about the book with the general impression that I would agree with Mr. Takac on virtually all questions of the day if we were discussing them over a cold beer sitting at a bar. But he presents a theoretical thesis, in fact as the title indicates a scientific proof, that was not convincing for me.
I have noted before that while the Constructal Law seems to apply to almost everything (in the inamanimant world and perhaps in the animal world), I think its application to human affairs is problematic. That is, as applied to the human world I believe it becomes a metaphor, one that can be instructive, but not always true nor quantitative. For example, the application of the Constructal Law might begin with the absolute law of flow of heat from high temperature to low, or a chemical species from high concentration to low; and from this basis it can be illustrated why tree like distribution patterns occur.
Scientific Proof of Ou…
Best Price: $5.95
Buy New $9.95
(as of 10:50 EDT – Details)
Now consider an example of human action, the concentration of human beings on the surface of the earth. Over the centuries there has been a movement from the low…