And this is why when the universe has a temporal entropy gradient, the direction of decreasing entropy gets labeled "the past". It's not because the past is the direction of "-t", but because the past is the direction of "-dS/dt". Otherwise we wouldn't form memories of it.
This dissolves the mystery of why the past has lower entropy than the future despite the laws of physics being time-reversible, and replaces it with the question "why does the universe have an entropy gradient at all?"
Thanks, you said it better. The derivative makes it clear! The direction of maximum entropy decrease in our 4D topology, gets labeled “-t”. The direction of maximum increase “+t”.
Did you read my other sibling comment about ordered regions of reality being inevitable?
(Not being snarky, just that was the question I have a conjectural answer too.)
Yes, I'm not entirely sure I have a concrete idea of what you mean, so I can only interpret it vaguely. But I think it is a fair hypothesis.
It reminds me of Feynman's QED, where he explains how a photon can take every path to its destination, and the end result looks almost like it's taking just one path, because all the other paths end up with scrambled phases that cancel each other out when you sum them up.
And this is why when the universe has a temporal entropy gradient, the direction of decreasing entropy gets labeled "the past". It's not because the past is the direction of "-t", but because the past is the direction of "-dS/dt". Otherwise we wouldn't form memories of it.
This dissolves the mystery of why the past has lower entropy than the future despite the laws of physics being time-reversible, and replaces it with the question "why does the universe have an entropy gradient at all?"