Abstract
The building of an industrial society can be viewed as a process of self-organisation with a decrease in entropy in society and a corresponding increase of entropy through dissipation of energy into the environment.
The process is driven by the “degradation” of high quality energy to low-quality heat as energy flows down potential gradients at the same time creating a favourable potential gradient driving the reaction.
The post-industrial society is characterised by an increase in complexity, which can be monitored by the exergy consumption. Here a first attempt is made to relate the complexity of a number of products, as represented by the number of their functional parts, to their actual economic value.
The process is driven by the “degradation” of high quality energy to low-quality heat as energy flows down potential gradients at the same time creating a favourable potential gradient driving the reaction.
The post-industrial society is characterised by an increase in complexity, which can be monitored by the exergy consumption. Here a first attempt is made to relate the complexity of a number of products, as represented by the number of their functional parts, to their actual economic value.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 295-299 |
| Journal | Exergy |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2002 |
| MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Keywords
- socioeconomic impacts
- entropy
- complexity
- industrial ecosystem
- sustainable development
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Cite this
Allan, J. (2002). Entropy and the cost of complexity in industrial production. Exergy, 2(4), 295-299. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1164-0235(02)00077-8