  A recent theory that determines the properties of disordered solids as the
solid accumulates damage is applied to the special case of fiber bundles with
global load sharing and is shown to be exact in this case. The theory
postulates that the probability of observing a given emergent damage state is
obtained by maximizing the emergent entropy as defined by Shannon subject to
energetic constraints. This theory yields the known exact results for the
fiber-bundle model with global load sharing and holds for any quenched-disorder
distribution. It further defines how the entropy evolves as a function of
stress, and shows definitively how the concepts of temperature and entropy
emerge in a problem where all statistics derive from the initial quenched
disorder.
  A previously unnoticed phase transition is shown to exist as the entropy goes
through a maximum. In general, this entropy-maximum transition occurs at a
different point in strain history than the stress-maximum transition with the
precise location depending entirely on the quenched-disorder distribution.
