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Distinction

A distinction is an ontic, scale-relative partition of a system’s effective state space such that, under identical driving and noise conditions, the statistical distribution of future trajectories depends on which side of the partition the system occupies.

Equivalently: distinction exists when, under a fixed dynamical evolution and noise model, initial conditions on opposite sides of a partition make different future trajectories physically reachable.

Distinctions arise from constraints, barriers, couplings, and energetic costs that differentially shape system dynamics. They are defined relative to an effective coarse graining and may exist at one scale while dissolving at another without becoming epistemic or observer-dependent.

Through this role, a distinction:

• produces counterfactually distinct future ensembles,
• introduces dynamical asymmetry without invoking purpose,
• provides the minimal physical substrate for information, memory, and control.

Distillation

Differences arise freely through fluctuation.
A distinction exists when differences constrain what can happen next.

Why it matters

• Constraint: Distinctions are defined by constraint-mediated partitions of state space.
• Persistence: Only distinctions with suppressed transition rates can stabilize into memory.
• Recursion: Distinctions are the raw material recursion operates over.
• RDD coherence: Establishes asymmetry as the minimal ontic requirement for structure.

Links

Related atoms

• Entropy
• Epistemic
• Noise
• Ontic
• Persistence (Metastable State Property)
• Persistent Distinction
• Perspective
• Potential
• Record (Memory Substrate)
• State Space
• Umwelt

Used in molecules

Conflicts with

• Views that treat distinctions as purely epistemic or representational.
• Accounts that identify information with abstract state labels independent of dynamics.

Sources

• Source: Landauer, R. (1961). Irreversibility and Heat Generation in the Computing Process. IBM Journal of Research and Development, 5(3), 183–191. https://doi.org/10.1147/rd.53.0183

  • Key: @landauerIrreversibilityHeatGeneration1961
  • Pages: 183-191
  • Use here: Defines thermodynamic irreversibly cost for logical erasure; motivates physical instantiation.

• Source: Bennett, C. H. (1982). The thermodynamics of computation—A review. International Journal of Theoretical Physics, 21(12), 905–940. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02084158

  • Key: @bennettThermodynamicsComputationReview1982
  • Pages: 905–940
  • Use here: Shows how logically reversible computation avoids mandatory dissipation, clarifying that persistence and erasure are distinct physical problems.

• Source: Seifert, U. (2012). Stochastic thermodynamics, fluctuation theorems, and molecular machines. Reports on Progress in Physics, 75(12), 126001. https://doi.org/10.1088/0034-4885/75/12/126001

  • Key: @seifertStochasticThermodynamicsFluctuation2012
  • Pages: 105
  • Use here: Provides the formal framework for meta-stability, noise suppression, and entropy production in non-equilibrium systems.

• Source: Parrondo, J. M. R., Horowitz, J. M., & Sagawa, T. (2015). Thermodynamics of information. Nature Physics, 11, 131–139. https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3230

  • Key: @parrondoThermodynamicsInformation2015
  • Pages: 131–139
  • Use here: Integrates information processing with non-equilibrium thermodynamics, situating distinction persistence within modern information physics.

These works analyze the thermodynamic cost of manipulating and erasing information.
This framework isolates the prior physical conditions under which distinctions and memory substrates can exist at all.

Re-contextualization Log

• 2025-12-29
  • context: Needed minimal ontic criterion separating difference from persistence
  • effect: refined
  • note: Reframed distinction in counterfactual, trajectory-based terms; compressed definition and separated persistence explicitly.
    • The definition now carries the explanatory load. - Counterfactual necessity is explicit. - Experimental implications are implicit and unavoidable. - Ontic vs epistemic is enforced by dynamics, not assertion.
• 2025-12-24
  • context: RDD refinement + Landauer reread
  • effect: strengthened
  • note: Separated distinction from persistence; clarified asymmetry as the minimal ontic criterion.