3 ms·
> 1. You can only go forward in time to varying degrees, never back. That's what we seem to observe; but I'm not aware of any reason why that should be so a pr
by denton-scratch 2y ago
> 1. You can only go forward in time to varying degrees, never back.
That's what we seem to observe; but I'm not aware of any reason why that should be so a priori, and I don't know what kind of evidence would be conclusive, either this way or that.
- nordsieck 2y ago> That's what we seem to observe; but I'm not aware of any reason why that should be so a priori, and I don't know what kind of evidence would be conclusive, either this way or that. This is my personal opinion, not an "official" physics opinion, but I think that the second law of thermodynamics creates a ratchet that prevents movement backwards in time.
- lazide 2y agoAlternatively, the ‘ratchet’ is a fundamental property of spacetime resulting in the second law.
- denton-scratch 2y agoIsn't the Second Law basically statistical? And wasn't it spelled out before anybody mentioned "spacetime"? There's this line about all the water molecules in a glass "randomly" jumping upward at the same time, leaving the glass empty. As far as I'm aware, this is completely possible; it's just so incredibly unlikely that it's never been observed. If the Arrow Of Time is a result of the Second Law, maybe a similar ultra-unlikely circumstance could result in time going backwards. At any rate, I'm not aware of anything that derives the Arrow Of Time from any fundamental property of spacetime.