We believe that reversible dynamic systems are idealizations of reality that need to be justified. If no convincing justification is available then dynamical systems should be considered as dissipative. This viewpoint has strong implications for the foundations of physics.

The general structure of dissipative evolution equations has been established, even for quantum dissipation. Dissipative quantum field theory has been found to be significantly more robust than standard quantum field theory. Also quantum gravity should be addressed in the framework of dissipative systems, where the Planck scale is related to the strength of dissipation.