Second Law

What Hacker News says

1. jonahbentonApr 2025
   You should read Stephen Wolfram, The Second Law. He has a useful perspective on what can be predicted (computed) by an observer and what can't, it is more helpful than thinking about things in terms of compression. His views on physics-in-the-world phenomena are not correct, to be clear, but the mental models are useful.
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2. infogulchApr 2025
   Half a year after that talk Wolfram appeared on a popular podcast [1] to discuss his book on the Second Law of Thermodynamics [2]. That discussion contained the best one-sentence description of entropy I've ever heard:

   > Entropy is the logarithm of the number of states that are consistent with what you know about a system.

   [1]: Mystery of Entropy FINALLY Solved After 50 Years? (Stephen Wolfram) - Machine Learning Street Talk Podcast - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkpDjd2nHgo

   [2]: The Second Law: Resolving the Mystery of the Second Law of Thermodynamics - https://www.amazon.com/Second-Law-Resolving-Mystery-Thermody...

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