Layton Gives talk on Thermoeconomics at ASME International conference in Denver, Monday November 14, 2011

Professor Layton traveled to Denver in mid-November to present his paper, entitled "Application of Game Theory to Thermoeconomics." During the presentation, Layton attempted to impress upon his audience that the rate at which we are currently converting chemical, nuclear, and short-wave radiant energy into thermal energy energy is clearly unsustainable. While the global rate is 200 megajoules per person per day, the average North American's rate is 1200 megajoules per day. By contrast, each person converts only 10 megajoules per day metabolically. He also introduced a relationship between information and entropy that he has been examining for the past few years and postulated that humanity entropicizes its immediate environment at a rate 10²² greater than the background entropy generation rate of the universe and noted that we can no longer escape our own entropy as evidenced by much of the thaw that is occurring in Greenland exacerbating the Fukushima disaster of March 2011, which in turn led to further entropization of the Pacific ocean. Layton was also dismayed by the unwillingness of many of the able-bodied conference participants to boycott the escalators in the conference center.

Layton fielding technical questions at the conclusion of his talk, demonstrates some of the strategies he practices to stay physically fit, keep organic material out of landfills, reduce loads on municipal waste management, and enrich the soil in his own backyard. Photo courtesy of Leila Aboharb.