Irreversibility and entropy¹

Abstract

At every instant there exists an unmistakable difference between past and future. A factual event A which I have experienced I will not with a clear mind mistake for a possible event B which I am expecting or dreading. But when later on B actually happens, then B is just as factual as A. Is there then still a qualitative difference between the two? The answer appears to be easy: A is and remains earlier than B. That in itself is a perfectic statement and the question is how it can be documented. The documentary proof is easy if the objective time of the occurrence of A and B has been substantiated by documents like a laboratory log book listing the day and the hour. But is this arrangement of all past events according to an objectively attestable time scale the only means of distinguishing earlier from later ones? In that case one would not speak of a qualitative difference between earlier and later.