Re: Second Law of Thermodynamics
There's a definite pecking order to physical laws, and while the second law of thermodynamics is often portrayed as an absolute inviolate in reality it is pretty near the bottom of that pecking order.
Essentially it reduces to a statement not about the Universe but about probability: there are far more disordered states than ordered ones so in there is a free choice as what the final state may be a disordered one is far more likely than a highly ordered one. ALMOST always the case is not the same thing as ALWAYS the case and there are plenty of documented "violations".
Consider a simple example by analogy: you have a deck of cards with a loose ordering to them - say it alternates between red and black cards throughout the deck. If you shuffle them in all probability you will destroy that loose ordering. There is no physical reason that it may not arrange into a MORE ordered state - say they sort into suits and by value within those suits. It's highly improbable but not impossible, and it is possible to rig the odds.
Suppose we carry one shuffling the cards, checking each time for that specific order. If it isn't there we shuffle again. If it is, we stop. After a suitably long amount of time it is no longer highly improbable that the cards are so shuffled - it is a virtual inevitability.
This isn't a purely abstract argument. Consider all the elementary particles required to form a complex, highly ordered object - YOU, for example. On the face of it there is no way in hell those particles could assemble themselves to form you. However, nature works in stages - protons and neutrons form into atoms and are then stable. If they don't they try again in another attosecond or two. Once formed the atoms form into molecules, or try again if they don't, and so on ultimately up to cells then organs and finally the completed individual. Each particular step is improbable but given enough roles of the dice such outcomes become an inevitability.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
