Blottisham
Right, class. Pay attention. Thermodynamics is simple, really. Energy flows, entropy increases, things naturally fall apart. Everyone knows that. The universe requires it. Clear?
Quillibrace
Depends what you mean by “requires.”
Blottisham
It requires. You can’t have a cup unbroken or a battery un-drained without… well… the laws intervening.
Elowen
You mean without the constraints being satisfied.
Blottisham
Constraints! Right, fine. I said laws. Same thing.
Quillibrace
No, it’s not the same thing. That’s the problem.
On the Second Law
Blottisham
The second law is simple. Disorder increases. That’s why you clean your desk and five minutes later — disaster. It’s a law! Absolute!
Elowen
Absolute? Or overwhelmingly probable?
Blottisham
Probable? No. No, it’s absolute. Look at your desk! Look at the universe!
Quillibrace
You are conflating combinatorial availability with metaphysical decree.
Blottisham
I refuse to believe that! The universe must intend something.
Elowen
It’s not intention. It’s just that some continuations are far easier to keep producing.
Blottisham
Easier? What does that even mean? Energy wants to spread? Entropy has a favorite?
Quillibrace
No. Nothing wants. Nothing has favorites. Everything is simply more or less combinatorially accessible.
(Blottisham splutters. Elowen suppresses a grin.)
Demonstrating a “Simple” Experiment
Blottisham
Now, watch this simple experiment. I place an ice cube in water. Ice melts. Water warms. Heat flows. Entropy rises. Clear evidence of natural law.
Quillibrace
Or, if you prefer: the ice is a configuration that can easily continue as water at that temperature, and the water is a configuration that can easily accept it. Nothing pushes.
Blottisham
Nonsense. Heat flows. Laws demand it.
Elowen
No laws are demanding anything. The configurations simply happen to have many compatible re-actualisations in that direction, and almost none in the reverse.
Blottisham
This is scandalous. Absolute scandal.
Quillibrace
Depends what you think is scandalous.
On Teaching the Arrow of Time
Blottisham
Time moves forward. The past is set. The future is open. That’s why entropy increases. It’s elementary.
Elowen
But you see, time isn’t doing any moving. The apparent arrow is just the gradient in relational availability. “Forward” is just the direction in which continuation is cheap.
Blottisham
I refuse. Time moves. The universe must have a preferred direction.
Quillibrace
It prefers nothing. But continuation prefers some regions of configuration space simply because almost everything else is astronomically improbable.
Blottisham
I am literally scandalised.
Elowen
And entertained. Very much so.
Energy Conservation Lesson
Blottisham
And now, class, the ultimate: energy is lost! Batteries drain, stars burn out, engines slow down. Observe and weep at the law of decay.
Quillibrace
Observe and… recognise relational redistribution. Energy is conserved. What changes is availability.
Elowen
The energy didn’t disappear. It just became harder to marshal into the forms that were easy before.
Blottisham
So, let me see… nothing actually runs down, nothing is lost, and the arrow of time is a slope in possibility space…?
Quillibrace
Precisely.
Blottisham
I… I feel faint.
Closing Remarks
Elowen
So, Mr Blottisham, would you like to revise your lecture?
Blottisham
Revise? I… I think I need a strong cup of tea first. And perhaps a stiff bribe to reality itself.
Quillibrace
Don’t worry. Reality is cheaper to keep going than it is to undo. Tea will suffice.
(Elowen chuckles. Blottisham stares, a man undone by combinatorial availability.)
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