Functionally speaking, yes. Fundamentally I don't think so. Even though we know how to pull work out of a system via macrostate order and can't from mixed systems due to our microstate ignorance, I don't think that means that it is impossible for anything to have enough microstate knowledge to derive useful work from it.

I don't think it's something we are going to solve soon. It is almost as crazy of an idea as hoping for perpetual motion, time machines, or wormholes in space. I don't hope for it ... I just think we haven't proven that it is out of the realm of possibility.

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> .. I don't think that means that it is impossible for anything to have enough microstate knowledge to derive useful work from it.

I obviously cannot fathom how this could ever be possible.

On the other hand, sometimes my mind takes this non natural sciences angle on things for a second and I just think: considering how crazy/curious/strange/weird/beautiful the mere fact that "things exist at all" is, it sure wouldn't be that much more crazy if things like wormholes or telepathy existed as well.