This paper was written by Charles A. S. Hall and Timothy McWhirter and published in 2023. It provides a review of the development and use of the maximum power principle in evolutionary theory, ecology, and economics. It includes a discussion of how Alfred Lotka and H. T. Odum both described the maximum power principle applying to natural systems in a manner that is compatible with the constraints acting on them. For example, they both describe the optimum efficiency for maximizing the output of useful power increasing has the available energy and resources decreases, something that is often overlooked in contemporary discussions and is becoming more important as we face the prospects of peak oil and the challenges presented by global climate change. This paper reveals new evidence that supports the maximum power principle, like that provided by Lenton et al. And it briefly describes the parallels between the maximum power principle and the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of the will to power.
The abstract states: “Ludwig Boltzmann suggested that natural selection was fundamentally a struggle among organisms for available energy. Alfred Lotka argued that organisms that capture and use more energy than their competition will have a selective advantage in the evolutionary process, i.e. the Darwinian notion of evolution was based on a fundamental, generalized energy principle. He extended this general principle from the energetics of a single organism or species to the energetics of entire energy pathways through ecosystems. Howard Odum and Richard Pinkerton, building on Lotka, extended this concept to ‘The maximum power principle’ and applied it to many biological and physical systems including human economies. We examine this history and how these ideas relate to concepts from other disciplines including philosophy. But there has been considerable confusion in understanding and applying these concepts which we attempt to resolve while providing various examples from routine life and discussing some unresolved issues.
This article is part of the theme issue ‘Thermodynamics 2.0: Bridging the natural and social sciences (Part 2)’.”
Hall CAS, McWhirter T. 2023. Maximum power in evolution, ecology and
economics. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 381: 20220290.
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2022.0290
Charles A. S. Hall and Timothy McWhirter
