Heat.

There are countlessly many more ways to break an egg than to make an egg (which, by implication, breaks more eggs). There are many more ways to fall down than to stand up ... many more ways to fall than to fly ... many more ways to die than to be born ...

After all, signals (sounds, lights) are merely interruptions of noise (silence, darkness).

In sum: order (i.e. dissipative structure)
is a phase-state of disorder – disorder's way of generating more disorder.

Disorder means unpredictable?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YM-uykVfq_E

This didn't quite clear things up. Time crystals are said to bounce between two positions without gaining entropy and never gaining or losing energy. So I assume energy state is a main part of definition?

No.

In what way can time run backwards and cause and effect be unclear?

Time doesn't "run" at all ... Rather, the universe expands – dissipates – as the cosmic thermodynamic gradient (i.e. "arrow of time").

Just the movie Tenet brought up a concept that suggested that some things can happen in either a forward or backward sequence and you don't know for sure what caused what.

Entropy has been described by some as disorder but others say this is incorrect/inaccurate/only an approximation. I don't know what to believe.

Statistically/probabilistically, there are more ways a particular object can be broken than can be whole (only 1) and so, given randomness, disorder becomes the norm and order an exception. A simple example of entropy is a shattered wine glass.

A simple example of entropy is a shattered wine glass. — Agent Smith

As punishment for breaking that expensive glass, you have a few options: 1) shake the glass pieces in a box until they reassemble into the wine glass 2) melt the glass back into a wine glass shape 3) glue the wine glass back.

Which process increases the most amount of entropy (wasted/dispersed energy)?

Some files are missing from my database. The question doesn't make sense to me.

Process #1.

Process #1. — 180 Proof

:ok:

The question doesn't make sense to me. — Agent Smith

Why would you glue a glass back together instead of shaking it back together?

It might be a koan if you ponder a bit over technical constraints but to shake a box for gazillions of years would take up a lot of energy which would disperse a lot of thermal radiation compared to the other options. And there ain't no recouping that thermal radiation lost to do useful work, unless you've got a lot of super sensitive nano sterling engines or thermal radiation cells, shifting electrons along a chain, driving your mechanism to shake the box. Even then a fraction of the energy is lost/unavailable to do work.

Guess it's best to get gluing, Mr. Smith. Hopefully the glass owner won't notice all the fracture lines.

:lol: