The Probability Map of the Universe: Essays on David Albert’s time and Chance, Loewer, Barry; Weslake, Brad & Winsberg, Eric B. (eds.) Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2023, pp. 1-389.

Abstract

First paragraph: We are surrounded by time-asymmetric goings-on: wine glasses smash but never unsmash, there are records and newspapers of yesterday’s events but seemingly none of tomorrow’s, and I can influence tomorrow but not yesterday. For one class of time-asymmetric processes (wine glasses smashing, gases expanding and cups of tea cooling) the hallmark of their asymmetry is that their entropy increases. Different entropies and their behaviour as systems reach equilibrium (states like the coffee being the same temperature as its surroundings) fall within the remit of thermal physics. Yet thermal physics has traditionally been concerned with macroscopic systems, and yet the microscopic processes underpinning these systems are time-symmetric. Where does the asymmetry come from?