--- name: ? status: compiling version: 0.0.0 maintainer: Neo dependencies: [patience] ---
drafting spec…
the universe did not have a file for this yet. writing one now. (first visit only: future readers will see this page instantly.)
--- name: ? status: compiling version: 0.0.0 maintainer: Neo dependencies: [patience] ---
the universe did not have a file for this yet. writing one now. (first visit only: future readers will see this page instantly.)
--- name: Second Law of Thermodynamics slug: second-law-of-thermodynamics type: universal_constraint status: running version: 0.0.666-alpha released: "~13,800,000,000 BCE (estimated, unverified, disputed by nobody sane)" maintainer: "entropy@void.null" dependencies: - "[time](/time)" - "[heat](/heat)" - "[probability](/probability)" - "[everything you built](/everything-you-built)" license: "None. It applies to you anyway." tags: - thermodynamics - irreversibility - physics - doom - running-in-production-since-the-big-bang - cannot-be-patched ---
The universe has a preferred direction, and it is not yours.
Entropy is a measure of disorder, or more precisely, of the number of microstates a system could be in without you noticing a difference. The Second Law states that in any closed system, entropy never decreases. It increases. It keeps increasing. It is increasing right now while you read this.
Heat flows from hot to cold. Never the reverse. Not without doing work. Not without making something else worse. The math is impeccable. The implications are
wait.
okay.
the implications are that every process leaves a residue. Every transaction costs something. Every cup of coffee cools. Every star burns out. Every tidy room, if you stop touching it, becomes a less tidy room. The arrow of time is not a law in most of physics. It is a law here. Only here.
This is the one that has teeth.
ERR_ENTROPY_NEGATIVE // This never fires. That's the point.
ERR_HEAT_FLOWING_UPHILL // Theoretical. Extremely temporary. Don't plan around it.
ERR_PERPETUAL_MOTION // Investor-created exception. Rejected at compile time.
ERR_CLOSED_SYSTEM_NOT_FOUND // The universe qualifies. You do not get to opt out.
ERR_REVERSAL_REQUESTED // lol
ERR_MAXWELL_DEMON_INVOKED // Cute. He still has to pay thermodynamic costs. Read the footnotes.
WARN_HEAT_DEATH_SCHEDULED // Non-urgent. ETA: very long. Status: inevitable.
Can I reverse it? No.
What about black holes? Still no.
The heat death of the universe sounds bad. It is outside current support windows. File the ticket if it helps.
Why does my room always get messier? Because order is one configuration. Disorder is very, very many.
v0.0.666-alpha : Still running. No changes. No patches pending.
v0.0.001 : Initialized at t=0. Entropy: minimum. Trajectory: locked.
"I used to think the laws of physics were on my side." — every user, eventually