On Fri, Oct 16, 2020 at 9:51 AM Jason Resch <jasonre...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I noticed that Victor Stenger's position on entropy, as described here: > https://arxiv.org/pdf/1202.4359.pdf on page 7, appears to be the same as > described by the cosmologist David Layzer in a 1975 issue of Scientific > American: > https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/assets/media/pdf/2008-05-21_1975-carroll-story.pdf > > The basic idea, which is described graphically here: > https://www.informationphilosopher.com/solutions/scientists/layzer/arrow_of_time.html > > It is a counter-argument to the commonly expressed idea that the universe > began in a low entropy state. Rather, it explains how the expansion of the > universe increases the state of maximum possible entropy. If the universe > expands more quickly than an equilibrium can be reached, then there is room > for complexity (information / negative entropy) to increase. > > Why is it that the "low entropy" myth is so persistent, and this alternate > explanation is so little known? Some physicists, such as Penrose are still > looking for alternate explanations for the special low entropy state. What > fraction of physicists are aware of Stenger's/Layzer's view? Does it appear > in any physics textbooks? Has it been refuted? > It is refuted by the idea of unitary evolution in QM. Unitary evolution means that everything is reversible, If new microstates are created as the universe expands, then this expansion cannot be reversed: the creation of such microstates gives an absolute arrow of time. This is generally rejected, because physicists tend to believe in unitary dynamics. If dynamics are not unitary, then the universe is not governed by the Schrodinger equation, and arguments for the multiverse collapse. Bruce -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAFxXSLQ2JpTSFzu3ArtVVunfYFjnHDm7LEfLhJx1rDPV-aSDhg%40mail.gmail.com.
