The Physics of Life: The Evolution of Everything by Adrian Bejan

Author:Adrian Bejan [Bejan, Adrian]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2016-05-24T06:00:00+00:00

7

Growth

In 1961 the Bic pen invaded the world. It was a very good thing, yet the idea that one could not keep it forever was cruel in the poor country where I was growing up. The Bic was designed to be thrown away. It was disposable! Such a concept was an object of derision in my culture. Not even the sharp piece of stone (the stylus) with which my grandmother taught me to write on slate was to be thrown away.

In a nutshell, the Bic story is the phenomenon of the growth of a flow architecture, the spreading of something useful, but in time, the novelty wears off. In my parents’ time and earlier, the fountain pen was something very special. The doctor was known from the engineer and the accountant because of the writing instrument he or she carried. The pen was personal and it was treasured, on full display in the chest pocket.

Once precious, now derisory. New artifacts are better, because they empower us more than existing models. The change from the old to the new makes it seem as if the old cell phone, like the old refrigerator, was made on purpose to be thrown away.

New professions are also better, while the once revered are downgraded or abandoned outright. Just two decades ago, the university professor and the medical doctor were doing only the high-level professional work justified by their doctoral degrees. Today, they spend half of their time typing and filling out forms online. The new professionals are the administrators, who multiply while the secretarial pool shrinks.

All growth happens this way. Two hundred years ago, to have “power” was the urge that started the industrial revolution. One hundred years ago it was the electrification revolution, driven by the industrial revolution. Today that power is taken for granted. New technologies, from microelectronics to communications and warfare, would not exist without the power that countless engines make available via electrical outlets every minute of the day.

During World War II a few armies had access to oil. Others had to develop the technology of synthetic gasoline, made from coal. The countries that did not have oil fields found some, on- or offshore. Today oil producers and consumers are everywhere.

Our own movement on earth has evolved in sync with the burning of fuel. Air travel used to be reserved for the elite, the “jet setters.” Today it seems everybody flies. It is air mass flow, not air travel. The makers of Airbus were accurate in calling their vehicle a “bus.”

As a technology becomes more mature over time, there are more and more new designs on the winners’ podium, like medalists at the Olympics. They may look different (note the diversity) but their performance level is the same (note the organization). With the maturing of a technology we see diversity and organization working hand in glove. Both are needed for better flow. As in any river basin, the diversity is the details (crooked channels, wet mud, fallen trees). The

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