Friday, July 02, 2021

The Arrow of Space

The arrow of time appears to be a fundamental part of the way the universe workls becuase over time errors accumulate in a one-way direction. Information theory, where errors can occur during the transmission of information over a distance, indicated that there can be an anlogue with space. I wondered how this could be illustrated.

Chinese Whispers is a game where a phrase is whipered from person to person in a room, eahc time accumulating errors. This game could be replicated on paper, where a drawing is made, then on the line below copied, then, while concealing the first drawing, that copy copied etc. After several drawings the errors in copying will be clear, showing the whole process in an instant. This is a space analaogue of the time in Chinese Whispers.

But both methods still use time. Can we say that time was a certain factor in errors in Chinese Whispers and not in the drawing game? Would copying the lines more slowly introduce more errors? It would seem that copying faster and more hurriedly would introduce more. Time will always be involved in copying, and it is copying that may introduce errors. Are there entropic processes that do not involve copying or the transmission of information?

Entropy in the entire universe is a complex issue. It seems ridiculous that black holes could destroy information or absorb light, or anything at all, forever, as these would effectively be, then, permanently destroying part of the universe. This would ultimately evolve the universe to a state of absolute nothing from something. As I've written before, I consider black holes to be not objects which suck matter in, but boundaries to the universe, and hold that nothing ever falls inside, merely orbits the edge or hovers tentatively close to the event horizon, retaining as much geometry as possible in a 'boundary' which is, counterintuitively, convex.#