Switching the material still violates conservation of energy. You could make a perpetual motion machine by creating a heat engine and switching hot water with cold water located elsewhere on the planet, for instance.
Yeah, you’re right, that that would just increase entropy faster. But what about using gravity to get the hot air or water to rise?
Hmm. If the switching requires no energy, it still seems like something is violated, but I’m not sure I know enough physics to determine what. What about conservation of momentum? Do the switched objects keep their current acceleration and speed?
The concept of switching in itself violates all kinds of fundamental assumptions in physics, so trying to think about it mostly results in nonsense. That’s if the switch doesn’t actually involve moving A to B and B to A by some path, though; if it does, you naturally pay the relevant costs to maintain conservation laws while switching.
Switching the material still violates conservation of energy. You could make a perpetual motion machine by creating a heat engine and switching hot water with cold water located elsewhere on the planet, for instance.
Without external input such a machine would eventually make the entire planet lukewarm, and run out of steam. No violation there.
You’re also assuming that the switching doesn’t require energy.
Yeah, you’re right, that that would just increase entropy faster. But what about using gravity to get the hot air or water to rise?
Hmm. If the switching requires no energy, it still seems like something is violated, but I’m not sure I know enough physics to determine what. What about conservation of momentum? Do the switched objects keep their current acceleration and speed?
The concept of switching in itself violates all kinds of fundamental assumptions in physics, so trying to think about it mostly results in nonsense. That’s if the switch doesn’t actually involve moving A to B and B to A by some path, though; if it does, you naturally pay the relevant costs to maintain conservation laws while switching.