3 ms·

Your reasoning is strange. Actually, higher entropy is what we may call "of lower complexity" requiring ever-shorter description length.

• jbay808 6y ago
  A higher entropy state has a longer description length. For example, let's say I have a magic electron microscope that can scan and record the exact position and velocity of each particle in some 1-cubic-micron volume, to within Heisenberg uncertainty limits and some finite digitization precision. If my sample is a 1-cubic-micron volume of flawless monocrystalline silicon at 0 Kelvin, I can 'zip' my recording and transmit that description in a much shorter sentence (in fact, I just sent it to you!) than if my sample is a cubic micron of room-temperature saltwater (whose macrostate I just described, but whose microstate I did not).
  • novaRom 6y ago
    Your example of monocrystalline silicon at (almost) 0 Kelvin has actually higher entropy than your example of saltwater.
    • jbay808 6y ago
      Can you elaborate? And what if I used as comparison something like room-temperature doped polysilicon?
• marcosdumay 6y ago
  If you care about describing the details, you can compress your description better if it's a low-entropy state. But of course, cosmology is full of more mundane explanations about how the limit of the possible entropy of the universe can grow with time, so a high-entropy state suddenly has a lot of room to increase even further.
  • jbay808 6y ago
    That's a good point. I was going to mention expansion of the universe as another one, but that invites its own line of "why" questions!