BothAndBlog Forum

Time Entropy - A New Way to Look at Information/Physics
https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussi ... ent/713457

Would it be useful to consider a four dimensional (i.e. time inclusive) form of entropy? — Count Timothy von Icarus

Actually, one definition of Entropy is "the arrow of time". Time is a measure of Change, and Entropy is the direction of Change (e.g.from hot to cold). So, Entropy and Time are necessarily entangled, just like Space-Time. For example, Entropy is the effect of Time on Spatial objects. The notion of Temporal Entropy then, is not trivial, but essential to the "way of the world". Moreover, Evolution would have vanished into nothing eons ago, if not for positive Natural Selection, to oppose the negative effects of Random Mutation. Hence, Time moves in a partly positive direction (progress), despite negative Entropy, but to the complex workings of Space-Time-Entropy-Energy (i.e. four dimensions).

Entropy and Time :
The idea that entropy is associated with the “arrow of time” has its roots in Clausius’s statement on the Second Law: “Entropy of the Universe always increases.” However, the explicit association of the entropy with time’s arrow arises from Eddington. In this article, we start with a brief review of the idea that the “increase in entropy” is somehow associated with the direction in which time increases. Then, we examine three different, but equivalent definitions of entropy. We find that none of these definitions indicate any hint of a relationship between entropy and time. We can, therefore, conclude that entropy is a timeless quantity.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7516914/
Note -- Entropy, as a mathematical concept is indeed timeless. But the effect of Entropy on Spatial objects is what we measure as "Time". So, together, Space-Time-Entropy-Energy is what we know as Cosmic Evolution. The positive twin of evil Entropy is what I call Enformy, which is another name for causal Energy.

Time Entropy - A New Way to Look at Information/Physics

The problem, which has been proposed since Boltzmann's time, is that time and entropy are not necessarily correlated. They are contingently so. This is known as Loschmidt's paradox. — Count Timothy von Icarus

Yes. Classical macro Time is intuitive, hence easy to understand. It's just the measure of cycles that are meaningful to humans : day/night ; moon phases, etc. Quantum micro Time, not so much. We are not normally aware of cycles at subatomic scales : Energy field phases & Radioactive Decay. Also, Cosmic cycles are measured in billions of Earth years, hence not perceivable in a human lifetime. Plus, Einstein's Block Time has no cycles at all. So, the concept of Time that we take for granted is just one way of measuring Change in the physical world. That's not to mention the subjective experience of Time that varies due to emotional states. Consequently, like everything else in Einstein's worldview, Time is relative to the Observer.

Likewise, the general concept of Entropy is intuitive, as we are familiar with hot coffee that gets cold in a short time. But technically, Entropy is a measure of predictability into the future, which varies both with degrees of physical order/disorder, and with the subjective perception of the observer. So, we have two moving targets to shoot-at, when we define Time and Entropy. And that's not to mention the philosophical paradoxes of Time Reversal, which in theory should be possible, but is never actually observed in practice.

Therefore, I have come to realize that both Time & Entropy are correlated to a third function of Change, which we define in various ways depending on our frame of reference. I call that third aspect of Causation/Change : Enformy. It seems that Time & Entropy & Enformy are interrelated at all levels of reality : microstates, macrostates, and cosmicstates, that are never static -- except in mental snapshots -- but always changing, evolving and emerging.


Time's Errant Arrow :
Time is arguably among the most primitive concepts we have—there can be no action or movement, no memory or thought, except in time. . . . .
"What is time? If nobody asks me, I know; but if I were desirous to explain it to one that should ask me, plainly I know not." ___Augustine . . . .
"... Philosophers tend to be divided into two camps. On one side there are those who regard the passage of time as an objective feature of reality, and interpret the present moment as the marker or leading edge of this advance. Some members of this camp give the present ontological priority, as well, sharing Augustine's view that the past and the future are unreal. Others take the view that the past is real in a way that the future is not, so that the present consists in something like the coming into being of determinate reality. .... Philosophers in the opposing camp regard the present as a subjective notion, often claiming that now is dependent on one's viewpoint in much the same way that here is. Just as "here" means roughly "this place", so "now" means roughly "this time", and in either case what is picked out depends where the speaker stands. In this view there is no more an objective division of the world into the past, the present, and the future than there is an objective division of a region of space into here and there. . . .
Often this is called the block universe view, the point being that it regards reality as a single entity of which time is an ingredient, rather than as a changeable entity set in time."
http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Tim ... 7s_entropy

Enformy :
In the Enformationism theory, Enformy is a hypothetical, holistic, metaphysical, natural trend or force, that counteracts Entropy & Randomness to produce complexity & progress. . . . .
1. I'm not aware of any "supernatural force" in the world. But the Enformation theory postulates that there is a meta-physical force behind Time's Arrow and the positive progress of evolution. Just as Entropy is sometimes referred to as a "force" causing energy to dissipate (negative effect), Enformy is the antithesis, which causes energy to agglomerate (additive effect).
2. Of course, neither of those phenomena is a physical Force, or a direct Cause, in the usual sense. But the term "force" is applied to such holistic causes as a metaphor drawn from our experience with physics.
http://blog-glossary.enformationism.info/page8.html

Interesting. Enformy seems like it would be an emergent factor from : The laws of physics being what they are and allowing for complexity to emerge. — Count Timothy von Icarus

"Enformy" is my own term for what physicists refer to as "Negentropy". But that scientific nomenclature, taking Entropy as primary, makes it sound like a Fatalistic Force. On the contrary, "to enform" means "to give meaningful form to . . ." In other words, it's a creative force in nature. And Evolution is the record of an ongoing series of emergent forms, from a formless beginning (the abstract mathematical Singularity).

Since Energy is the universal Causal Force in nature, we could conclude that energy is also Enformy. But Energy is both creative and corrosive, both constructive Enformy and destructive Entropy. Also, the Big Bang -- imagined as an explosion -- would seem to be a deconstructive event. Instead, it began to self-organize into matter/antimatter, and thence into Darwin's "endless forms most beautiful"*1. Therefore, I view Energy simply as the Potential for Change, which can be construed as good or bad, positive or negative. Hence, Enformy and Entropy are emergent factors of Energy, as positive & negative forms of Causation (i.e. the defining & organizing laws of physics).

Ironically, we usually think of Evolution as progressive from simple elements to complex compounds. But it is also digressive, in that most of its new forms don't survive the life or death competition of Random Change. So, if it were not for the "law of nature" we call Natural Selection, the nascent universe would have blinked-out long long ago. And I view Enformy as the embodiment of that natural tendency to progressive change.

From a viewpoint outside our universe, the Arrow of Time would seem to be pointing downward toward a cold-dark-heat-death. But, from the local perspective of living & thinking beings inside the Causal Train, Time's Arrow appears to be pointing upward, toward greater organization & complexity, hence Creativity. So, the Big Bang can be viewed as both a destructive explosion of Entropy, and a constructive expansion of Enformy. Personally, I prefer the more uplifting worldview.


*1. Darwin :
“Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/3895-t ... -and-death

Negentropy is reverse entropy. It means things becoming more in order. By 'order' is meant organisation, structure and function: the opposite of randomness ...
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negentropy

Enformy :
The BothAnd principle is a corollary of the Enformationism thesis. It views the world as a process motivated and guided by antagonistic-yet-complementary powers. For example, Energy is the motive force for all physical actions, but its positive effects are offset by the, less well known, antithetical force of Disorganization, in the great dialectical process of evolution. The overall effect of Change in the universe is detrimental, as encapsulated in the concept of Entropy (negative transformation). Yet, by balancing destructive Entropy with constructive Enformy (self-organization), evolution has proven to be a creative process. However, since the existence of “Enformy” has not yet been accepted by mainstream science --- except in the crude concept of “negentropy” --- any worldview based on such a flimsy foundation is likely to be dismissed by either/or empiricists as a bunch of Woo. Yet, all scientific & philosophical speculation inevitably begins with a leap of imagination. And this hybrid world-view is one such leap into the unknown.
http://www.bothandblog.enformationism.info/page17.html

BIG BANG : EXPLOSION or EXPANSION --- DIVERGENT or EMERGENT ?
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/vLq9P ... 200-80.jpg