Time direction is determined by entropy from "summary" of A Brief History of Time by Stephen W. Hawking
Entropy, a concept from thermodynamics, can be thought of as a measure of disorder in a system. The second law of thermodynamics states that the total entropy of a closed system can never decrease over time; it can only stay the same or increase. This means that as time passes, things tend to become more disordered. In the context of the arrow of time, this increase in entropy plays a crucial role. Entropy provides a direction for time to flow in; it gives us a sense of past, present, and future. When we observe a system, we can tell the direction in which time is moving by looking at the level of entropy. For example, if we see a broken cup on the floor, we know that it must have been dropped and shattered at some point in the past. The broken cup represents a state of higher entropy compared to when it was whole, indicating that time has passed in a particular direction. This connection between entropy and the direction of time helps explain why we remember the past but not the future. In a high-entropy state, like the broken cup, it is easier to know what happened before because the disorder has increased over time. In a low-entropy state, such as a pristine cup, it is harder to predict what will happen next because the system is more ordered. Thus, the concept of entropy provides a way to understand why we experience time in a particular direction. It is the increasing disorder in the universe that gives time its arrow, moving us from past to present to future. Time direction is determined by the march towards higher entropy, shaping our perception of the world around us.
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