N° 111 - Juillet 2023 - Énergie et Sociétés

Energy flows and the self-organization of societies as dissipative structures

By François RODDIER
French physicist and astronomer
And Mireille RODDIER
Associate professor and program director of architecture, University of Michigan

Complex system studies have shown that, under a sufficient flow of energy, dissipative structures appear and self-organize into periodic oscillations characteristic not only of Carnot cycles, but also of biological and economic cycles. We have also seen that the emergence of such cycles is the outcome of a common thermodynamic process known as the principle of maximum entropy production (Roddier, 2012). What happens when the flow of energy, which the system has structured itself to dissipate most efficiently, significantly decreases? Here we argue that this unsolicited shortage might be salutary to our interconnected ecosystems if we learn to couple our centrifugal phases of innovation and production with antagonistic centripetal phases of restauration and maintenance. Otherwise, whether we continue to exponentially consume energy from unforeseen new sources, or too abruptly cease all energy consumption without a process of adaptation, our globally interconnected ecosystems may prove too fragile to recover.

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