Ah! I’ve been looking for that. The metaphor I’d always used for that is “pressure” (generic term of pressure, not physics term), which I’d consider anytime there was an inequality between two ‘somethings’ that would create a kind of loose ‘wall’ inbetween the two.
[and other pressures would create other walls on other side of the wall and those would create other pressures from other inequalities)]
It’s how I would visualize “wind sheer”, how paint can stick to a surface and yet also peel off, psychological and social pressure between people.
[I can even ‘feel’ pressure between moods, such as when a piece of music and images used by a helpful organization attempts to convince me that I should give them money for their cause. They use beautifully sad music pictures of sad puppies and kittens, and a pleading voice. It’s worst when it’s a cause I believe is important, but I *hate* the psychological tricks they use.
So there would be a ‘pressure’ created between the inequalites of the state I was in (my default is happy and optimistic) and the ‘mood’ they *wanted* me to be in. ]
Are all or any of these effectively related to partitions? No idea. But the “Sum over Histories” of the microstates is a strong clue that this might be the ‘bridge’ factor I’ve been looking for.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_function_(statistical_mechanics)#Meaning_and_significance
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_canonical_ensemble ah – and *this* is where I see some assumptions happening that I was looking for.
[closed systems vs open systems, whole vs parts, that each thermodynamic system is created uniquely and treated ‘as if’ entirely objectively separated from other systems… yes, this is the area of this I’ve been looking for]
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[my interests are only somewhat related to this field of study and as I don’t know what I’m looking for until I find it, I also don’t know where I’m going once I’ve found it, but I know when I’ve found it and that I’ll end up somewhere with it]
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