Over 130 years ago, James Clerk Maxwell introduced his hypothetical demon as a challenge to the scope of the second law of thermodynamics. Fascination with the demon persisted throughout the development of statistical and quantum physics, information theory, and computer science, and links have been established between Maxwell's demon and each of these disciplines. The demon's seductive quality makes it appealing to physical scientists, engineers, computer scientists, biologists, psychologists, and historians and philosophers of science.

Since the publication of Maxwell's Demon: Entropy, Information, Computing in 1990, Maxwell's demon has been the subject of renewed and increased interest by numerous researchers in the fields mentioned above. Updated and expanded, Maxwell's Demon 2: Entropy, Classical and Quantum Information, Computing retains many of the seminal papers that appeared in the first edition, including the original thoughts of James Clerk Maxwell and William Thomson; a historical review by Martin Klein; and key articles by Leo Szilard, Leon Brillouin, Rolf Landauer, and Charles Bennett that led to new branches of research on the demon. This second edition contains newer articles by Landauer, Bennett, and others, related to Landauer's principle; connections with quantum mechanics; algorithmic information; and the thermodynamics and limits of computation. The book also includes two separate bibliographies: an alphabetical listing by author and a chronological bibliography that is annotated by the editors and contains selected quotes from the books and articles listed. The bibliography has more than doubled in size since publication of the first edition and now contains over 570 entries.

Part reference, part history and philosophy of science, this second-edition volume of scientific papers invoking James Clerk Maxwell's hypothetical demon—a challenge to the scope of the second law of thermodynamics—adds 16 new articles and deletes 10 from the first edition. Leff (physics, California State Polytechnic U.) and Rex (physics, U. of Puget Sound) link the demon to computer science, information theory, and engineering in 31 papers dated from 1874 to 2000. Topics include entropy, information, and Szilard's paradox; heat generation required by information erasure; and notes on the history of reversible computation. The volume contains a new preface and full bibliography in alphabetical and chronological orders. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Since the publication of Maxwell's Demon: Entropy, Information, Computing, Maxwell's demon has been the subject of renewed and increased interest by numerous researchers. Updated and expanded, Maxwell's Demon 2 retains many of the seminal papers that appeared in the first edition, including key articles by Leo Szilard, Leon Brillouin, Rolf Landauer, and Charles Bennett that led to new branches of research on the demon. This second edition contains newer articles relating to Landauer's principle, connections with quantum mechanics, algorithmic information, and the thermodynamics and limits of computation. Expanded information is also included in the bibliography.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 459-476) and index.