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Evolution as Physics: The Human & Machine Species

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2016

Adrian Bejan
Adrian Bejan*
Affiliation:
Duke University, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Durham, NC 27708-0300, USA. E-mail: abejan@duke.edu
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Abstract

Humans and technology are not in symbiosis. They are one species, not two. Humans, enveloped in artefacts of many kinds and ages (from writing, to airplanes), are evolving as one species, the ‘human & machine species’. This evolution is visible and recorded in our lifetime. Here, I illustrate the evolution of the human & machine species by focusing on commercial aircraft, the cooling of electronics, and modern athletics, which is a special laboratory for witnessing the evolution of animal locomotion. I show that these evolutionary forms of flow organization are in accord with, and can be predicted based on the law of physics that governs evolution in nature, bio and non-bio: the constructal law. Evolution, life and the human & machine species are physics.

Type
Erasmus Lecture
Information
European Review , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , February 2017 , pp. 140 - 149
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2016 

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