what are macrostates? Variables which are required to make your thermodynamics theory work! If they don’t, add more macrostates!
nonequilibrium? Define it as systems that don’t admit a thermodynamic description!
inductive biases? Define it as the amount of correction needed for a system to obey Bayesian updating, i.e. correction terms in the exponent of the Gibbs measure!
coarse graining? Define the coarse-grained variables to keep the dynamics as close as possible to that of the micro-dynamics!
or in a similar spirit—does your biological system deviate from expected utility theory? Well, there’s discovery (and money) to be made!
It’s easy to get confused and think the circularity is a problem (“how can you define thermodynamics in terms of equilibriums, when equilibriums are defined using thermodynamics?”), but it’s all about carving nature at the right joints—and a sign that you made the right carving is that the amount of corrections needed to be applied aren’t too numerous, and they all seem “natural” (and of course, all of this while letting you make nontrivial predictions. that’s what matters at the end of the day).
Then, it’s often the case that those corrections also turn out to be meaningful and natural quantities of interest.
Man, deviation arguments are so cool:
what are macrostates? Variables which are required to make your thermodynamics theory work! If they don’t, add more macrostates!
nonequilibrium? Define it as systems that don’t admit a thermodynamic description!
inductive biases? Define it as the amount of correction needed for a system to obey Bayesian updating, i.e. correction terms in the exponent of the Gibbs measure!
coarse graining? Define the coarse-grained variables to keep the dynamics as close as possible to that of the micro-dynamics!
or in a similar spirit—does your biological system deviate from expected utility theory? Well, there’s discovery (and money) to be made!
It’s easy to get confused and think the circularity is a problem (“how can you define thermodynamics in terms of equilibriums, when equilibriums are defined using thermodynamics?”), but it’s all about carving nature at the right joints—and a sign that you made the right carving is that the amount of corrections needed to be applied aren’t too numerous, and they all seem “natural” (and of course, all of this while letting you make nontrivial predictions. that’s what matters at the end of the day).
Then, it’s often the case that those corrections also turn out to be meaningful and natural quantities of interest.