ilya_prigogine_isabelle_stengers_alvin_tofflerbookfi-org

231 REDISCOVERING TIME
that, at the time of the formation of matter, the universe had to
be in n{)nequilibrium conditions, for at equilibrium the law of
mass action discussed in Chapter V would have required equal
amounts of matter and antimatter.
What we want to emphasize here is that nonequilibrium has
now acquired a new, cosmological dimension. Without nonequilibrium
and without the irreversible processes linked to it,
the universe would have a completely different structure.
There would be no appreciable amount of matter, only some
fluctuating local excesses of matter over antimatter, or vice
versa.
From a mechanistic theory that was modified to account for
the existence of the universal constant h, quantum theory has
evolved into a theory of mutual transformations of elementary
particles. In recent attempts to formulate a "unified theory of
elementary particles" it has even been suggested that all particles
of matter, including the proton, are unstable (however, the
lifetime of the proton would be enormous, of the order of 1 Q 3 0
years). Mechanics, the science of motion, instead of corresponding
to the fundamental level of description, becomes a
mere approximation, useful only because of the long lifetime
of elementary particles such as protons.
Relativity theory has gone through the same transformations.
As we mentioned, it started as a geometric theory that
strongly emphasized timeless features. Today it is the main
tool for investigating the thermal history of the universe, for
providing clues to the mechanisms that led to the present
structure of the universe. The problem of time, of irreversibility,
has therefore acquired a new urgency. From the field of
engineering, of applied chemistry, where it was first formulated,
it has spread to the whole of physics, from elementary
particles to cosmology.
From the perspective of this book, the importance of quantum
mechanics lies in its introduction of probability into microscopic
physics. This should not be confused with the stochastic
processes that describe chemical reactions as discussed in
Chapter V. In quantum mechanics, the wave function evolves
in a deterministic fashion, except in the measurement process.
We have seen that in the fifty years since the formulation of
quantum mechanics the study of nonequilibrium processes
has revealed that fluctuations, stochastic elements, are impor-