Who would win a poker match—Laplace’s demon or Maxwell’s demon?

4 points · 4 comments · view on lemmy.world

4 Comments

threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 72d (1 reply)

Laplace's demon:

knows the precise location and momentum of every particle in the universe

Presumably this includes the cards in their opponent's hand.


Maxwell's demon:

can distinguish between fast and slow molecules, and can open and close tiny doors very quickly

While also impressive, these skills seem less directly applicable to winning at poker.

AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 72d

Maxwell’s demon can violate the second law of thermodynamics on a molecular level—it can add information to a system and lower its entropy. In principle it could do so in a way that affects the shuffling of a deck of cards.

Laplace’s demon, on the other hand, knows the precise location and momentum of every particle only because it’s extrapolating from knowing their precise locations and momenta at a previous point in time and then applying deterministic physical laws. But the intervention of Maxwell’s demon violates those laws, potentially adding a growing degree of uncertainty to Laplace’s predictions.

TRBoom@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 72d (1 reply)

The Demon core, duh

T00l_shed@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 72d

Maxwell's silver hammer