Based on the Bénard convection experiment in non-equilibrium thermodynamics as the underlying physical model, this paper constructs an analogy framework for social systems between the relatively low-temperature steady state (70° unipolar steady state) and the relatively high-temperature steady state (80° multicentric steady state), revealing the essential efficiency differences of different social structures in energy conduction, information flow, resource allocation, and system error correction. The study finds that the unipolar steady-state society has inherent structural defects, manifested as endogenous corruption, global information distortion, and failure of whole-process control, which can only passively correct errors after the system collapses. The multicentric steady-state society has higher ordered convection efficiency, pluralistic check-and-balance capability, and real-time process regulation capability, and its civilizational competitiveness and survival stability are significantly better than those of the unipolar steady state. Modern historical conflicts such as the Opium War and the First Sino-Japanese War are essentially a dimensionality reduction suppression of high-efficiency multicentric steady-state civilizations over low-efficiency unipolar steady-state civilizations. Breaking away from moral judgment and ideological narratives, this paper explains the underlying roots of social rise and fall, institutional advantages and disadvantages, and national strength and weakness with pure natural scientific laws, providing a unified thermodynamic interpretation framework for civilizational evolution and social structure optimization.
Xijiang Hu (2026) studied this question.