Time, Energy & Information
Entropy, computation, and the thermodynamic arrow
Overview
The second law of thermodynamics binds time, energy, and information into an indissoluble triad. Entropy — the measure of disorder, energy dispersal, and missing information — increases with time, giving time its arrow. Every computation, every act of information processing, requires energy and takes time. Landauer's principle links information erasure to energy dissipation, and the arrow of time ensures that this dissipation is irreversible. This triad is the domain of thermodynamics, information theory, and the physics of computation.
Central Tension
The tension is between reversibility and irreversibility. The fundamental laws of physics are time-reversible, yet information processing in practice is irreversible: erasing a bit costs energy and produces heat that cannot be un-produced. The thermodynamic arrow of time — the direction in which entropy increases — appears to be an informational arrow: the direction in which structured, usable information degrades into noise. Whether this arrow is fundamental or emergent, and whether it could ever be reversed, is a central question of modern physics.
Key Philosophical Questions
- Is the arrow of time fundamentally thermodynamic (energy dispersal), informational (entropy increase), or both?
- Does reversible computation offer a way around the thermodynamic cost of information processing, or are there fundamental limits?
- Does the heat death of the universe represent the end of all information processing, or could new informational structures emerge?
- Is time itself an emergent property of energy-information dynamics, rather than a fundamental dimension?
Schools of Thought
The arrow of time is the arrow of entropy; energy dispersal and information loss are two descriptions of the same irreversible physical process.
Time is the computation cycle, energy is the computational resource, and information is the output. The arrow of time is the direction of processing.
Time, energy, and information are all aspects of becoming; every temporal event is an energetic transformation that carries and creates informational content.
Quantum mechanics is time-reversible and preserves information; the thermodynamic arrow and apparent information loss are emergent from quantum decoherence, not fundamental.
God sustains the energetic and informational order of creation through time. The arrow of time reflects God's sovereign direction of history from creation to consummation, not the autonomy of thermodynamic law.
Synthesis
Time, energy, and information are bound together by the second law of thermodynamics: the arrow of time is the arrow of entropy, and entropy is simultaneously a measure of energy dispersal and information loss. This triad defines the ultimate constraints on computation, memory, and the persistence of knowledge in a universe that moves irreversibly toward equilibrium.
Related Dimension Pairs