When “Time Emerges Thermodynamically

When “Time Emerges Thermodynamically”

Interpretive Slides, Operational Constraints, and the Status of Thermal Time

Abstract: Claims that “time emerges thermodynamically” or that the arrow of time “appears only where there is heat” recur in contemporary physics and philosophy. In their technical formulations, such claims are often modest and precise; however, they are frequently re-read as stronger ontological assertions: that statistical structure generates physical time itself. This paper analyzes the mechanisms by which this slide occurs and introduces Reactive Substrate Theory (RST) as a framework to dissolve these tensions by distinguishing operational physical time from descriptive parameters.

1. Introduction: Emergence Claims and Interpretive Risk

In settings where no preferred time parameter is present in the fundamental equations—most notably canonical quantum gravity—it is natural to ask whether a notion of time can be defined from other physical structures. However, the language used to summarize these proposals often invites a stronger reading: that thermodynamics or entropy produces, generates, or is more fundamental than physical time itself.

2. Where the Slide Appears: Representative Quotations

The interpretive risk is best illustrated by careful attention to actual formulations. Consider these representative statements:

“The ‘thermal time hypothesis’ is the idea that what we call ‘time’ is the thermal time of the statistical state.”

“In the elementary equations of the world, the arrow of time appears only where there is heat.”

Each admits a natural—but unintended—rephrasing by readers: shifting from “defined from” to “generated by,” and from “appears where there is” to “is caused by.”

3. Definition Versus Generation: A Category Distinction

At the core of the confusion lies a category mistake. In technical work, “thermal emergence” is often a coordinatization claim: given a state, one can define a flow. However, in popular and philosophical discourse, this becomes an ontological claim: statistical structure produces physical time.

A quantity defined per unit time (entropy production, temperature) cannot coherently function as the generator of time without circularity.

4. Reactive Substrate Theory as a Constraint Framework

RST enforces an interpretive constraint: Physical time is operational. It is defined by the rate at which finite, dissipative physical processes function as clocks.

  • A time parameter may be mathematically defined in many ways.
  • A physical time exists only where there are operational processes capable of registering duration through irreversible coupling.

5. Thermal Time Revisited (Without Polemic)

RST has no quarrel with thermal-time programs as mathematics or as a descriptive strategy. The divergence arises only when a flow parameter is promoted from state-dependent description to the source of physical time itself. RST blocks that promotion, insisting that a flow parameter is not physical time unless it is tied to finite, dissipative clocks.

6. Why the Objection “Nobody Thinks Temperature Generates Time” Misses the Point

Interpretive inversions rarely appear as explicit theses. They appear as defaults: when clocks quietly disappear from the discussion, or when thermal descriptors are treated as more fundamental than operational rates. RST’s role is preventative; it stops the slide before it hardens into ontology.

7. Conclusion

By enforcing a strict operational criterion for physical time, RST preserves the legitimate insights of thermal-time approaches while blocking a subtle but consequential inversion. It restores proportionality between what can be written mathematically and what can be claimed physically.

Some approaches define time-parameters from statistical states (“thermal time”); Reactive Substrate Theory treats such parameters as descriptive conveniences unless they are operationally supported by finite, dissipative clocks, and forbids their reinterpretation as generators of physical time.

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