Hints At Illusion: Irreversible Laws

So it will be with the occurrences corresponding in the reverse universe to almost any common occurrence in the physical world of our experience. Everything seems to be perfectly explicable in terms of physical laws, but at the same time, the combinations of motions seem to have something utterly strange about them. Hence there is some point of difference between the real universe and the reverse universe, and hence there must be some property of the real universe that is irreversible. This irreversible property is found in what is called the second law of thermodynamics.

William James Sidis

This physical law, as well as all those which are derived from it, is irreversible. Furthermore, only such physical laws as are derived from the second law of thermodynamics are irreversible; so that this law constitutes the sole difference between the real and the reverse universe.

William James Sidis

“The sole difference between the real and the reverse universe” is the Second Law of Thermodynamics in this examination of the nature and structure of reality via its apparent laws. Sidis in The Animate and the Inanimate makes this distinct motion about this particular law compared to other laws. 

In this sense, the Second Law of Thermodynamics becomes a fulcrum for the operations of the first universe, or the real universe, and the reverse universe, or the reverse time universe. All physical laws, according to the earlier portions of the text, must be, by necessity, reversible. 

While, at least, one is not. More will be expounded in later chapters about the illusory nature of laws in this regard through the text-based representation of a thought experiment, not on the nature of time but, on the nature of natural law through time. Natural law here does not mean a religious ethic found in Natural Law. 

For laws’ operation through matter as a consistency, matter in the real universe and the reverse universe will be the same. However, against common sense or ordinary experience in the real universe, balls will bounce up the stairs rather than down. This peculiarity speaks to the strangeness of the reverse universe compared to the real universe. 

The stairs “throw” the ball up – utterly peculiar, strange. Physical law describes the actions of the ball, the how. Such a why, though, it seems entirely queer. Sidis proposes this within the framework of the common denominator of the real universe and the reverse universe. 

One is the Second Law of Thermodynamics with the energy of the universe “constantly running down.” With differences of energy in different volumes of the universe, the cosmos will equalize the energy distribution, eventually. 

Further, he explains. Any law connected to this Second Law of Thermodynamics will be irreversible by derivation as well. Even though, energy can be reconverted; heat will be lost. The energetic clock runs down, not up, here.  

This is an example of an irreversible law when contrasting the real universe and the reverse universe, of Sidis. He considers the Second Law of Thermodynamics, in fact, the “sole” difference between them. 

What is the reason for this universal peculiarity? With a universe running down from the concentrated forms of energy to pure evenly distributed heat means the universe will exact upon itself a state in which no further state transitions seem possible: a dead universe as the real universe, in the end. 

In the reverse universe, the universe, in some sense, winds up, not with a loss of heat with collisions, but an increase in heat or molar kinetic energy. Heat is gained, not lost when contrasting the reverse universe and the real universe collisions. 

When comparing a machine efficiency to the physical laws, Sidis measures all as less than 100% efficient, because heat is lost, not gained. By its nature, in the thought experiment, the reverse universe becomes more than 100% efficient – let’s call this superefficient. 

In turn, the reverse time universe becomes superefficient vis-à-vis mechanical efficiency to the point of a minimum of >/= 100% in the real universe. Yet, as physical property mirrors one to the other, the reverse universe maps onto the real universe in most respects with the mechanical efficiencies, potentially, as reflective of one to the other in terms of supraefficiency and superefficiency. 

One universe’s supraefficiency is another’s superefficiency when considered on a reversal of the factor or variable of temporality. Sidis remarks on temperature too. With two bodies at 0° and 200° Fahrenheit, the available energy would be represented by the temperature of the hotter body or the one corresponding to 200° Fahrenheit.

While, at the same time, the colder body remains 460° above Absolute Zero here. In each of the two bodies, there is 460° of unavailable energy for the two. With the same mass and specific heat, the total available energy, under the Second Law of Thermodynamics, would be 460° and 460° plus a corresponding 0° and 200° Fahrenheit, respectively, for a total of 1,120° Fahrenheit between the two bodies.

The total energy available becomes 200°:1,120° for a total energy conversion possibility of 18%. Energy in this available form becomes unavailable because of the Second Law of Thermodynamics with the amount of available energy in the universe consistently running down and not up. Cosmos exists as zero-sum in this framework, so far.

A cosmogony, cosmology, and eschatology of the transient and the self-constrictive. A constriction bound by the progression of time as experienced as an Arrow of Time moving ‘forward.’ In such a reverse universe, energy is not dissipated as heat but inculcated or absorbed – in a manner of speaking – into the bodies in an environment.

“Bodies” here means general bodies, not human or animal alone. Energy below the coldest is drawn upon as a reserve and there exists a reserve fund of energy building energy differences based on reserve rather than dissipation, as in a supraefficiency versus a superefficiency.