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A comment on Message from Mexico: U.S. Is Polluting Water It May Someday Need to Drink. Parent comment

Re:Message from Mexico: U.S. Is Polluting Water It May Somed... by sourkremlin on Thursday January 30, 2014 @03:58PM (#7153313)
Sure there is. The second law of thermodynamics (which I am assuming you are referring to) only applies to an isolated system and describes its tendency toward thermal equilibrium -- it doesn't apply when you are able to add energy to the system.

Am I misunderstanding you?

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Re:Message from Mexico: U.S. Is Polluting Water It May Somed... by gaius on Thursday January 30, 2014 @04:14PM (#7153403)
Simply that nanotech can accomplish miracles. You have to power your nanobots somehow, and you have to dump the heat they create by doing work.
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Re:Message from Mexico: U.S. Is Polluting Water It May Somed... by Crito on Thursday January 30, 2014 @05:13PM (#7153702)
So why is that a big deal? There are trillions of nano-machines being powered and dumping their waste heat in you right now. Or rather, they are you.
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Re:Message from Mexico: U.S. Is Polluting Water It May Somed... by gaius on Friday January 31, 2014 @03:43AM (#7155905)
Sure, and when they work hard, it can kill you (that's what a fever is). So how can you do healing better than the body can? Where does the power come from, and where does the heat go?
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Re:Message from Mexico: U.S. Is Polluting Water It May Somed... by maxerickson on Thursday January 30, 2014 @04:38PM (#7153508)
If you harvest solar energy you can do a whole lot of work without worrying about any new heat.

Harvesting a tiny fraction of the total solar energy available (on Earth) would look an awful lot like a miracle.

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Re:Message from Mexico: U.S. Is Polluting Water It May Somed... by khafra on Friday January 31, 2014 @08:22AM (#7156495)
He's not talking about climate change; he's talking about heat sinks so your nanobots don't literally vibrate themselves apart before doing anything useful.
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Re:Message from Mexico: U.S. Is Polluting Water It May Somed... by dredmorbius on Thursday January 30, 2014 @08:41PM (#7154726)
Open systems still obey thermodynamics, it's just that there's an energy flux (and an entropy gradient).

Look up Ilya Prigogine, self-organizing systems, and dissipative systems.

Humans and their societies (and other artifacts) are one such.

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Re:Message from Mexico: U.S. Is Polluting Water It May Somed... by chm on Thursday January 30, 2014 @07:28PM (#7154408)
You're then both saying the same thing. S has to go up somewhere.
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