In our previous paper, “Born Rule as Entropic Unfolding,” we proved from first principles that the probabilities in quantum mechanics arise from a balance between geometry and thermodynamics. There we showed that when every measurement outcome exports the same amount of entropy, the familiar Born rule emerges exactly—but that real detectors with unequal heat costs should produce slight, measurable deviations. That result built a bridge between the abstract mathematics of quantum amplitudes and the tangible physics of entropy flow during measurement.
The new paper, “Discrete Entropy Quanta and Physical Unfolding,” zooms out to show where those entropy costs come from. It demonstrates that every irreversible change in nature—from a qubit readout to a collapsing star—occurs through discrete packets of entropy creation, each worth ( k_B \ln 2 ). These are the smallest possible acts of distinction between past and future, the “frames” of reality’s movie. Where the first paper explained how entropy shapes the outcome of a measurement, this one explains how those same entropy quanta collectively generate time, energy flow, and gravity.
Together, the two papers complete the picture:
- The first gives the microscopic law—how entropy costs bias quantum probabilities.
- The second gives the universal context—why entropy is quantized, why energy is its time-rate, and how gravity and time itself arise from that unfolding.
In short, Born Rule as Entropic Unfolding defines the rulebook for each individual quantum toss, while Discrete Entropy Quanta and Physical Unfolding reveals the deeper mechanism that makes the toss—and every other irreversible event in the universe—possible.
Energy is the tempo of change, the rhythm at which distinctions are made. Entropy is the trace of that same process — the growing record of distinctions already made. To measure one is to measure the other, just from a different angle in time.
In this light, there is no hierarchy where energy drives entropy or entropy follows energy. They are two views of one process — the universe endlessly differentiating itself. The cosmos is not powered by energy and constrained by entropy; it is the unity of both.
Energy is entropy, and entropy is energy — the same current flowing through every act of becoming.