That's defining IRREVERSIBLE FAPP. OTOH, if X and Y produce Z at any time, I don't see any way to reverse the process, so it's IRREVERSIBLE IN PRINCIPLE. Do you agree? AG
On Saturday, August 6, 2022 at 5:02:17 AM UTC-6 [email protected] wrote: > On Fri, Aug 5, 2022 at 6:47 PM Jesse Mazer <[email protected]> wrote: > > *> But when physicists say that a given system's dynamics are "reversible" >> doesn't this generally involve an appeal to different initial boundary >> conditions?* >> > > If at the time of the Big Bang the universe was it in an extremely low > entropy state then even if the laws of physics were 100% deterministic > and even if X and Y always produced Z and nothing except X and Y could > produce Z the second law of thermodynamics would still insist that things > are irreversible because there are an astronomical number to an > astronomical power more ways for something to have high entropy than low > entropy. > > John K Clark See what's on my new list at Extropolis > <https://groups.google.com/g/extropolis> > 2le > > > -- 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 [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/605f3ec1-1476-489e-afff-5a02b8b165ban%40googlegroups.com.
