Arrow of Time
Robert L. Oldershaw
>
> > On Nov 14, 10:11 am, Igor Khavkine <igor...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > As far as we know, all the time asymmetry that we have seen is due to
> > > initial conditions.
>
> I have a feeling you are trying to make a statement with a rhetorical
> question. Unfortunately, for the life of me, I can't figure out what
> it is. I've pointed out scientific consensus, which has been tested
> and prodded since the time of Boltzmann. If you have a comment or
> objection, please state it plainly.
>
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I will be happy to offer an explicit comment, but first you must
explicitly explain how "all ...time asymmetry...is due to initial
conditions".
Peter's colleague has stated the explicit idea that the strict
directionality of causality defines the arrow of time. Nothing
else is required, including an ex nihilo "creation" event.
Can your explanation for the arrow of time, or Sean Carroll's,
be stated in an explicit scientific form that does not involve
entities or processes that are unobservable?
Is it possible that the fact that an egg cannot be unscrambled
has nothing to due with the big bang?
How could the converse be scientifically tested?
Yours in science,
RLO
www.amherst.edu/~rloldershaw
Robert L. Oldershaw
wrote:
>>
Challenge: Refute - 'The reason our scrambled eggs
don't unscramble themselves is is intrinsicaly related
to the initial conditions of the "Big Bang".'
No problemo.
(1) I firmly believe that the same physical principles
apply to all scales of nature.
(2) However, the fundamental scales [atomic, stellar,
galactic, metagalactic] need not be strongly coupled.
In fact, one can show that that are not.
Example: The observable universe [part of our metagalaxy]
expands, but *importantly*, galaxies, stars and atoms do not
participate in this metagalactic expansion. They just go
along for the ride, if you know what I mean.
Therefore: Our scrambled eggs [molecules thereof] are
roughly 3 full scales [molecules --> stars --> galaxies -->
metagalaxy] "away" from the scale of metagalactic expansion.
Bottom Line: The arrow of time for our scrambled eggs is
almost certainly decoupled from the arrow of time defined
by the metagalactic expansion, although they point in the
same direction: cause --> effect.
Does Sean Carroll need to rewrite his much ballyhooed book
that is about to be published?
Yours in science [the real kind that is definitively testable],
RLO
www.amherst.edu/~rloldershaw
Robert L. Oldershaw
wrote:
On Nov 19, 4:35 am, "Juan R." González-Álvarez
<juanREM...@canonicalscience.com> wrote:
>
> One of the arts of becoming a competent scientist relies on knowing when
> and how to apply approximations.
>
Yes, and one of the lessons of becoming a competent natural
philosopher is that all descriptions of physical systems and physical
phenomena, whether they are verbal, graphic or mathematical, are but
limited approximations to the actual systems and phenomena.
This is an important lesson which has been sporadically forgotten in
recent decades and has produced some remarkable examples of
intellectual arrogance in theoretical physics.