Contemporary Ideas
Whether or not the principle of maximum power efficiency can be considered the fourth law of thermodynamics and the fourth principle of energetics is moot. Nevertheless, H.T.Odum also proposed a corollary of maximum power as the organisational principle of evolution, describing the evolution of microbiological systems, economic systems, planetary systems, and astrophysical systems. He called this corollary the maximum empower principle. This was suggested because, as S.E.Jorgensen, M.T.Brown, H.T.Odum (2004) note,
Maximum power might be misunderstood to mean giving priority to low level processes. ... However, the higher level transformation processes are just as important as the low level processes. ... Therefore, Lotka's principle is clarified by stating it as the principle of self organization for maximum empower.
— p.18
C. Giannantoni may have confused matters when he wrote "The "Maximum Em-Power Principle" (Lotka–Odum) is generally considered the "Fourth Thermodynamic Principle" (mainly) because of its practical validity for a very wide class of physical and biological systems" (C.Giannantoni 2002, § 13, p. 155). Nevertheless Giannantoni has proposed the Maximum Em-Power Principle as the fourth principle of thermodynamics (Giannantoni 2006).
The preceding discussion is incomplete. The "maximum power" was discovered several times independently, in physics and engineering, see: Novikov (1957), El-Wakil (1962), and Curzon and Ahlborn (1975). The incorrectness of this analysis and design evolution conclusions was demonstrated by Gyftopoulos (2002).
More generally, Bejan and Lorente (2010) showed that all the proposed optimality statements (min, max, opt, and design) have limited ad-hoc applicability, and are unified under the Constructal law of design and evolution in nature.
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