  The direct interaction theory of electromagnetism, also known as
Wheeler-Feynman electrodynamics, is often misinterpreted and found unappealing
because of its reference to the absorber and, more importantly, to the
so-called absorber condition. Here we remark that the absorber condition is
indeed questionable and presumably not relevant for the explanation of
irreversible radiation phenomena in our universe. What is relevant and deserves
further scrutiny is the emergent effective description of a test particle in an
environment. We therefore rephrase what we consider the relevant calculation by
Wheeler and Feynman and comment on the status of the theory.
