Is the second law of thermodynamics routinely violated?

[Max_S]

@Half_Man_Half_Wit

Huh? How on Earth could that happen? The observer’s powers of observation are equal to the previous experiment; they’re able to perceive (what comes down to) the fraction of black vs. white marbles in a region, but not the actual marbles. This is really the same thing your computer screen does—by mixing three colors in different proportions, because you can’t see the individual pixels, different gross colors emerge, like in this picture. Or take something like this ASCII art: the different grey regions are just different fractions of black, mixed with white. That’s the way the observer sees the system: the individual marbles are too small to be individually resolved, but different mixtures of them realize different levels of grey.

Very well, so the observer can still distinguish between the color of the left box and the color of the right box after you have removed the wall separating them. I still assume he can only see the solid color of each box - he sees the entire left box as one color, and the entire right box as one color too. In that case, I predict he will likely see a never ending fluctuation of monochromatic colors. It is possible but highly unlikely that he will see a solid color in either box, unchanging over time. More probably, the color of each box will usually be a middle shade of grey, constantly flickering from lighter to darker tones. Eventually both boxes will return to their original black and white, if only for a moment.

~Max