THERMO VALUE DYNAMICS ("TVD")
ThermoValueDynamics (TVD)
ThermoValueDynamics is the multi-disciplinary study of how Value emerges, evolves and dissipates under thermodynamic principles.
It models Value as ordered energy states subject to entropy (decay) and negentropy (renewal).
Within this framework, value is shaped through two complementary mechanisms which may either accelerate or slow entropic processes:
(1) negentropic inputs that create or restore order, and
(2) the modulation of decay rates through environmental or structural conditions that slow or accelerate entropic processes.
ThermoValueDynamics applies across all scales, from biological and ecological systems to cultural, economic and technological structures, unifying simple universal laws with layered, fractal models of Value change.
FUNDAMENTAL LAW OF VALUE DYNAMICS
Sumner's Law of Value Dynamics
dV/dt = -λV + N(t)
The Law applies across Value dynamics in all ordered systems and therefore includes crossing the Domains of Physics, Information, Economics, Nature and Culture etc
The Law provides insight into the fact that all Order(s) decays unless actively managed.
From an observation
From an experience years ago as a Lepidopterist, Sumner's sighting of a Scarce Swallowtail butterfly (pictured) sparked a thought process around its losing scales from its wing (yet becoming more beautiful) to its impending death and ultimate return to (carbon) dust versus being captured and displayed in a sealed, glass show case for centuries and how its Value, entropy and timeline changed.
As he considered each potential human/universal intervention thereafter, he speculated that in adding 'ordering' energy N(t), he changed the decay rate λ that also changed the butterfly's Value. He perceived that there could be a Value that is the dynamic equilibrium between imposed order(s) and natural entropy through time.
Thermodynamically driven
The Law reveals that value is not subjective; it's the thermodynamic quantity representing the energy required to maintain ordered states against entropy.
This unifies:
- Physics: All systems decay toward equilibrium (2nd law of thermodynamics)
- Economics: All value requires maintenance energy (no perpetual motion machines)
- Biology: Life requires constant energy input to maintain organization
- Culture: Traditions, institutions, knowledge decay without active preservation
The butterfly taught us that beauty, value, life and civilization are all manifestations of the same fundamental process: the temporary local reversal of entropy through energy expenditure.
SumneR'S MANIFESTO
MANIFESTO: THREE ECONOMIC LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS
The Manifesto posits that value is layered, like the strata of civilization or the components of an artifact, with each layer subject to its own decay inputs and outputs.
It also introduces a fractal perspective: value flows and dissipates across nested scales, from cosmic energy to planetary resources, institutions, people and artifacts.
Sumner's vision of 'Layered-Value Decay' shows how Value evolves through countering-measures but always underpinned by natural entropy heading, ultimately, towards equilibrium through time.
THE COMBINATION
Sumner's Manifesto and Fundamental Law frameworks form a coherent vision:
- one captures simplicity and universal applicability,
- the other richness and multiscale sophistication.
TOGETHER - TVD
This unifying umbrella is a Doctrine, one Sumner terms as:
ThermoValueDynamics.