The Probabilistic Driver and the Role of Restraints

Abstract

The probabilistic distributions of matter and energy give the direction toward which processes spontaneously tend to go. However, every existing process is presently in force because of some kinetic barrier or restraint that operated in the past: were it not for kinetic restraints (and constraints that were eventually removed by past processes), all the ongoing processes, and their causal antecedents, had already occurred billions of years ago. The role of constraints and restraints is therefore fundamental to establish the actual direction a real process can take, as well as its velocity.

Keywords: Absolute minimum, Activation free energy, Earth’s thermal gradient, Free energy, Kinetic barrier, Local minimum, Metastable equilibrium, Restraints, Stable thermodynamic equilibrium, Thermodynamic equilibrium, Transition state.