English

Probability as a physical motive

History and Philosophy of Physics 2015-06-26 v2 Classical Physics Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability

Abstract

Recent theoretical progress in nonequilibrium thermodynamics, linking the physical principle of Maximum Entropy Production ("MEP") to the information-theoretical "MaxEnt" principle of scientific inference, together with conjectures from theoretical physics that there may be no fundamental causal laws but only probabilities for physical processes, and from evolutionary theory that biological systems expand "the adjacent possible" as rapidly as possible, all lend credence to the proposition that probability should be recognized as a fundamental physical motive. It is further proposed that spatial order and temporal order are two aspects of the same thing, and that this is the essence of the second law of thermodynamics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.physics/0702124,
  title  = {Probability as a physical motive},
  author = {Peter Martin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0702124},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

Replaced at the request of the publisher. Minor corrections to references and to Equation 1 added.