Considerations on non equilibrium thermodynamics of interactions

•Nature can be considered the first engineer.•Nature designs open systems.•Open systems are interacting systems.•Interactions can be achieved by flows.

Nature can be considered the “first” engineer! For scientists and engineers, dynamics and evolution of complex systems are not easy to predict. A fundamental approach to study complex system is thermodynamics. But, the result is the origin of too many schools of thermodynamics with a consequent difficulty in communication between thermodynamicists and other scientists and, also, among themselves. The solution is to obtain a unified approach based on the fundamentals of physics. Here we suggest a possible unification of the schools of thermodynamics starting from two fundamental concepts of physics, interaction and flows.