3006: Demons

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Demons

Title text: Though they do appreciate how much he improved the heating system for the flame pit.

Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a DEMI-DEMONIC DOORMAN - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

Maxwell's demon is a thought experiment devised by James Clerk Maxwell that appears to refute the second law of thermodynamics, which roughly says that heat always flows from hotter regions to colder. In the thought experiment, two chambers, both containing a gas at the same temperature, have a door between them. A being (later called a demon by Lord Kelvin) lets only fast-moving gas molecules move from the first chamber to the second, and only slow-moving ones move from the second chamber to the first. The second chamber's gas gradually warms as the average speed of its molecules increases, and the first chamber's gas likewise cools. It should be noted that the action of such a Demon, if an actual physical being, following other physical laws, can be demonstrated to use up at least the amount of energy, that could later have been extracted from having a gas split up in a hot and a cold part. So such a demon can not, like the other types, exist in real life, and thus Maxwell's demon does not break the second law of thermodynamics.

This demon behaves very differently from mythological demons, which exist in the afterlife (usually some form of hell) and punish evil humans after death by causing them great suffering, as for example boiling them in oil or casting them into flame pits.

In this comic, Randall jokes that, if such a demon were to encounter more stereotypical mythological ones, he would probably not fit in very well, and would inevitably propose treating humans like the particles of the thought experiment. While a few physics-savvy humans might feel offended by such treatment^{[citation needed]}, for most, the suffering would stem from the anxiety of knowing that, once they cross the door, they are not allowed to return for all eternity. So, unlike particles which move by simple virtue of having energy, they must choose when to cross it. This modern psychological approach to torture stands out from ancient techniques of physical torture such as being boiled in oil or cast into a flame pit.

The title text continues the joke by suggesting that while Maxwell's demon's idea for torturing the souls of the damned might seem whimsical to the other demons, it could still be used to heat the flame pits better. The other demons' appreciation of this technical improvement mirrors real-life situations where kids that "have trouble fitting in with the others" due to their unusual ideas for games and atypical interests (e.g. in thermodynamics) occasionally earn some appreciation when their cleverness is deemed useful.

This comic was published on 1 November, 2024, the day after Halloween, around the time when many contemporary comic strips have demonic, supernatural or other spooky themes.

Transcript

[Three demons, Cueball-like in general appearance but with horns and pointed tails, are standing together while surrounded by flames. The leftmost demon is holding a pitchfork and the next one has his hands down. They are looking at the third to the right standing a bit apart from them. This last demon, Maxwell's demon as given in the caption, holds his palms up while looking at the other two.]

Demon with pitchfork: What's our plan for the souls today? Boil them in oil?

Middle demon: We could cast them into the flame pit.

Maxwell's demon: What if we set up two rooms with a door in between, but– get this– we only let them go through it one way!

[Caption below the panel:]

Maxwell's Demon had trouble fitting in with the others.

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Discussion

Instead of an iron pitchfork, he probably uses a silver hammer! 172.71.26.54 16:34, 1 November 2024 (UTC)

🤓☝ moment Caliban (talk) 20:03, 1 November 2024 (UTC)

Why are his hands backwards??? What did you do to him?! P?sych??otic?pot??at???o (talk) 21:36, 1 November 2024 (UTC)

Note that while boiling souls in oil or casting them into flame pit is traditional, multiple authors already made the observation that it's not really that effective and that modern devils would likely go for psychological torture instead. -- Hkmaly (talk) 01:15, 2 November 2024 (UTC)

That's what I thought... it's a beautiful meta-comment that the comic makes this transition to modern torture coincide with the transition to modern physics, as it is embodied by Maxwell, who explained "large-scale effects" and "distant effects" microscopically resp. infinitesimally. Transgalactic (talk) 03:06, 2 November 2024 (UTC)

As discussed in Pratchett's Faust Eric, both damned and demons might actually prefer traditional physical punishment to a more tedious psychological regime. 172.70.162.36 03:28, 2 November 2024 (UTC)

The evolution of life (entropy-reversing agents) disproves the second law of thermodynamics, which is rooted in short-term statistics of large systems rather than systems where the duration of time greatly exceeds the number of particles. Maxwell’s Demon could be seen as a simplification of this —- that taking action to counter probability does indeed do so, and is indeed probable eventually. 172.68.3.96 14:10, 2 November 2024 (UTC)

New category: Infernal Strips

What do you think about a new Infernal category for strips with demons or in hell? There are quite a few. 501, 533... 172.70.47.10 17:56, 1 November 2024 (UTC)

I agree. 42.book.addict (talk) 18:04, 1 November 2024 (UTC)

I just tagged a half-dozen strips, but a site admin will have to create the category page itself. It turns out there was some overlap with a "Religion" category, whodathunkit. 172.70.46.243 19:01, 1 November 2024 (UTC)

They were tagged inconsistently (at least two different forms of the category). And as they were all redlinked I undid them all anyway.

The proper process is more like:

1. Say something like Hey, I think we need a "Category:<Foo>",
   • To justify it, identify a handful of comics (or all of them, if you're being thorough). Unless perhaps the comic is called "SOMETHING SOMETHING NUMBER 1" and it very much looks like it's going to be the start of a series, although still might be best to wait for "SOMETHING SOMETHING NUMBER 2".
2. Get comments (e.g. Yes, a good general idea, but it should probably be "Category:<Bar>" to be consistent/accurate/properly-inclusive/etc) and additions (Yeah, and comic in #1234 would fit too!)
3. When someone who can (e.g. 42, there) decides it's been successfully argued to an agreement (YMMV), they use the final list (and the agreed upon name) to create the category and at least start the process of adding the category memberships.

To be honest, though I agree about the relevence of the created Category:Rockets, as just done, I also think that one was done far too quickly. I'd at least wait a few days after the last "Good idea!", just in case someone who checks in regularly but not frequently (e.g. once a week) has any wise words to add. 162.158.74.49 22:14, 1 November 2024 (UTC)

I agree it would be nice with a list of possible comics, and maybe a better title. Is it to do with demons of hell. Could religion be used, just added that here as the other demons are typical Christian like demons. --Kynde (talk) 10:44, 2 November 2024 (UTC)

Names for this category: Category:Demons, Category:Infernal, Category:Hell. Did I miss any? 42.book.addict (talk) 18:11, 2 November 2024 (UTC)

New category: Classical Thought Experiments

While I'm at it, I'd also suggest a new category for Classical Thought Experiments, everything from Maxwell's Demon to Schroedinger's Cat to the Trolley Problem. Readers may be familiar with some, but not all of the classical references, and it would be nice to have them all accessible from the same page. 172.70.46.243 19:01, 1 November 2024 (UTC)

I can see something like this being useful. Not entirely sure of the name, but maybe, and I'm not sure what a better one would be. (To start off the discussion, as described above.) 172.70.58.21 22:17, 1 November 2024 (UTC)

There's some other demons made famous by thought experiments. I wonder how Maxwell's Demon would get along with the Evil Demon that tricks people into thinking they're 17th century philosophers. And I'm sure Laplace's Demon already knows how they'd get along. DanielLC (talk) 23:36, 1 November 2024 (UTC)

Ah bother, ninjaed. Laplaces Demon was the first that came to my mind after reading the strip. 172.71.160.115+