
AMA | October 2024
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
Entropy Grows from Coarse-Grained Understanding
The early universe exhibits limited microstates leading to the increase of entropy over time as systems evolve into macrostates with greater microstates. This increase in entropy is fundamentally related to the arrow of time, which is not apparent in classical deterministic physics assuming knowledge of the microstate. However, since absolute knowledge of the universe's microstate is unattainable, observers can only interact with the universe through consistent macroscopic information that reflects strong correlations across different observers. Thus, the understanding of entropy and the arrow of time is rooted in our observational limitations rather than a clear deterministic framework.
00:00
Transcript
Play full episode
Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts
Save insights instantly, chat with episodes, and build lasting knowledge - all powered by AI.