With my coeditor, Andrew Rex (University of Puget Sound), I completed a second edition of our book Maxwell's Demon: Entropy, Information, Computing, published originally in 1990. The new title is
Maxwell's Demon 2: Entropy, Classical and Quantum Information, Computing.
The second edition contains fifteen of the twenty-five reprints from the first edition plus sixteen new reprints. The overview, chronological, and alphabetical bibliographies will pinpoint the many developments (over 300 new citations) published during 1990 - 2000. Here is a brief description of it.
This second edition, Maxwell's Demon 2: Entropy, Classical and Quantum Information, Computing, brings under one cover over thirty reprints -- more than half of which are new. Included are seminal works by James Clerk Maxwell and William Thomson; historical reviews by Martin Klein and Edward Daub; pivotal contributions by Leo Szilard and Leon Brillouin; linkages with the limits of computation by Rolf Landauer, Charles Bennett, and Seth Lloyd; views of the demon using algorithmic information theory by Carleton Caves and Wojciech Zurek; and examination of a quantum mechanical Maxwell's demon by Seth Lloyd. There are over 200 additions to the alphabetical and chronological bibliographies. A revised overview outlines the flurry of scholarly activity about Maxwell's demon since publication of the first edition. Evidently Maxwell's demon has become an ingrained part of the fabric of science and the culture of entropy.
Background: James Clerk Maxwell introduced his now legendary imaginary 'demon' to illustrate the statistical nature of the second law of thermodynamics about 130 year ago. The demon grew in stature as linkages with statistical physics, quantum mechanics, information theory, algorithmic information theory, and the limits of computation were developed and honed. Remarkably Maxwell's demon is still alive and well today, and its seductive quality pervades the minds of physical scientists, engineers, computer scientists, biologists, psychologists, historians, philosophers of science, creative writers, and musicians -- as always inviting creative thought and debate.
For more information, including access to the prefaces, table of contents, and full chapter 1, click HERE