How causation is rooted into thermodynamics

TL;DR

This paper explores how the concepts of causation are fundamentally linked to thermodynamics, specifically through the entropy gradient, which explains the directionality of cause and effect and the flow of time in physical systems.

Contribution

It provides a thermodynamic explanation for the origin of causation and the arrow of time, connecting entropy gradients to the physical basis of cause-effect relationships.

Findings

Entropy gradient explains intervention effects on future rather than past

Entropy gradient underpins the time orientation of knowledge systems

Causation's directionality is rooted in thermodynamic principles

Abstract

The notions of cause and effect are widely employed in science. I discuss why and how they are rooted into thermodynamics. The entropy gradient (i) explains in which sense interventions affect the future rather than the past, and (ii) underpins the time orientation of the subject of knowledge as a physical system. Via these two distinct paths, it is this gradient, and only this gradient, the source of the time orientation of causation, namely the fact the cause comes before its effects.