J. Polkinghorne pairs and contrasts two concepts in relation to a new heavens and a new earth: temporality and transience. Temporality is a term he states will continue, albeit likely differently than in this world, into the world to come, but notes that transience applies only to the present world.
But how to have temporality without transience? In physics transience boils down to the second law of thermodynamics, so to exclude transience means getting rid if that law – which leads to the question . . .
Could the universe function without entropy increasing?
No. The chemistry in your body and cells would go completely haywire without the 2nd law of thermodynamics. Something as simple as the Sun radiating heat would go completely haywire. Rivers would spontaneously flow uphill.
To our understanding, entropy is the only physical principle that is not reversible, and is thus the arrow of time. This leads to much speculation at the penumbra of physics, including where did order come from to begin with?
You can’t win, you can’t break even, and you can’t get out of the game.
What if it was you can’t win, but you can break even? i.e. entropy can’t decrease, but it doesn’t have to increase? or (if I understand the Britannica article right ΔS can equal zero?
Parts of a system can decrease in entropy as long as the system as a whole sees an increase in entropy.
What I am talking about is if the 2nd law of thermodynamics was false where a closed system can spontaneously decrease in entropy. If this were the case then water in the ocean would start spontaneously splitting into hydrogen and oxygen, the reverse of the usual reaction. The same would happen to chemical reactions in your cells, such as oxygen and carbon dioxide spontaneously producing carbohydrates without any energy input.
You can pump water uphill in the normal world, so it isn’t contrary to gravity. The laws of thermodynamics say that you have to input energy to move water uphill, but if those laws no longer apply then no energy is needed.
Assuming that the molecules of water (or anything else) would hold. What happens at every level, if matter no longer operated in ways described in the second law?
Complete chaos happens. It would be hard to even imagine such a universe. A metal bar could go from an even 22C across its entire length, and then the next second it could be 300C at one end and -300C at the other for no apparent reason. Salt in the oceans could suddenly concentrate into one place. You could get colder as you walk towards a fire. It would be Bizarro world.
Deadly indeed … suddenly the O2 and N2 that was well mixed in the room sorts itself out into O2 all on one side, N2 all on the other side … woe to you if you were on the wrong side!
And, ironically, It would be that bizarre and capricious world that would actually seem to imply (most strongly) some will of a capricious designer! And yet, it is totally opposite the universe we actually live in! And opposite of what scriptures observe too … God causes sunshine and rain to fall … widely … where it’s needed / wanted / deserved as well as where it’s not.
If you are asking what the world would be like without the 2nd law of thermodynamics you are essentially asking what would happen if statistical behavior did not hold. Based on my basic level of knowledge, I think thermodynamics is essentially a statistical theory.
I was under the impression that thermodynamics was more classical than quantum, but could be wrong.
Unlike forces which we currently treat as fundamental, thermodynamics are emergent. Also unlike forces which have seemingly arbitrary parameters and ratios, thermodynamics is not parameterized. It comes down to how many ways stuff can be arranged. So while you could create alternate universes by fiddling with the constants of the electroweak force, or speed of light, there is no real dial to turn on entropy. A physical universe without thermodynamics might be an illogical concept, let alone physically bizarre.
