Lockless algorithms for mere mortals

My guess is that is demonstrably false. Lets say your system consists of 3 gas molecules 3m x 3m x 3m room. I doubt anyone's checked, but it seems certain those 3 molecules will end up on one side of the room at some point.

That is not terribly realistic of course. In real life a 3m x 3m x 3m room at 1atm has about 5e25 molecules in it. Statistically, I think we can say we are fairly safe from someone's ear drums bursting because all the air ended up on one side of the room. However, nothing has changed except the number of molecules. As far as I know nothing in physics says the universe behaves differently because that number has changed.

Your mind is now telling you that you can extract energy from that if it happened, so it must violate the 1st law of thermodynamics. I don't know the answer to that, but I don't feel too bad about it because it took about 50 years to figure out why Maxwell's daemon was a myth. I'm sure the universe has accounted for it somehow. It probably has to do with the fact that you have to wait for the universe goes dark to have a fair chance it will happen, and by that time the 2nd law has recovered the energy from you evaporating. [0]

> The casino analogy is a poor one because very few players in a casino are isolated

You play against the house, not the other players. Example: in Keno, the odds a published and fixed. So you can place a minimum bet and win the maximum even if no one else plays that round.

[0] That was a joke. Well part of it was. If it's not accounted for somewhere, it's where dark energy comes from [1].

[1] Also a joke. I really have no idea. [2]

[2] Actually, it could well be the Maxwell daemon thing again. Sitting there, actively monitoring the room so you know when all the gas molecules are on one side of the room takes an external energy source.