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> there is an asymmetry between knowing the past and the future - due to thermodynamics

Would you please elaborate on this?

It's physics-enthusiast for "time goes one way".

I think this may refer to the second law of thermodynamics - entropy cannot decrease over time in an isolated system. One could argue the entire universe is one.

But our local "system" has a gigantic miasma of incandescent plasma on our doorstep. The Earth itself should not need to worry about entropy for a long while yet...

What @stared means with the entropy quote is that in a world tending from organised to disorganised, it is impossible to KNOW the future, but also very hard to TRULY KNOW the past. As each step into the future causes the remnants of past to decay.

>But our local "system" has a gigantic miasma of incandescent plasma on our doorstep. The Earth itself should not need to worry about entropy for a long while yet...

I interpret GP's reference to thermodynamics/entropy as generating the "arrow (asymmetry) of time,"[0]

Which exists (at least for us matter-based beings) as remembering the "past," but not the "future," and local fluctuations in entropy don't affect that at all.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_of_time

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