Stradis, Athamos (2021) Memory, the Fork Asymmetry, and the Initial State. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Why do we have records of the past and not the future? Entropic explanations for this ‘record asymmetry’ have been popular ever since Boltzmann. Foremost amongst these is Albert and Loewer’s account, which explains the record asymmetry using a low-entropy initial macrostate (the ‘Past Hypothesis’) plus an initial probability distribution. However, the details of how this initial state underpins the record asymmetry are not fully specified. In this paper I attempt to plug this explanatory gap in two steps. First, I suggest the record asymmetry is more immediately explained by the ‘fork asymmetry’, which their picture omits. Second, by relating the fork asymmetry to an initial state that’s metaphysically similar to theirs, I clarify how this ultimately underpins the record asymmetry.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Stradis, Athamos athamos.stradis@kcl.ac.uk 0000-0002-1836-7922
Keywords:	Statistical Mechanics, Past Hypothesis, Record Asymmetry, Fork Asymmetry, Time Asymmetry, Time's Arrow, Arrow of Time, Records, Memory
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Cosmology Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics Specific Sciences > Physics > Statistical Mechanics/Thermodynamics
Depositing User:	Mr Athamos Stradis
Date Deposited:	21 May 2021 02:57
Last Modified:	21 May 2021 02:57
Item ID:	19073
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Physics > Cosmology Specific Sciences > Probability/Statistics Specific Sciences > Physics > Statistical Mechanics/Thermodynamics
Date:	11 May 2021
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/19073

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