E n t r o p y

Entropy, according to my Physics textbook is a measure of the degree of disorder in a system, and it is treated as topic that one must be aware of in order to understand concepts in thermodynamics and equilibrium.

According to the Simulation Hypothesis, everything is an illusion, we live in a computer program and the reality we are so well-ensconced in is nothing more than a few strings of code. However, if the Universe is a simulation, and judging by its sheer enormity, is automated, it ought to have a core function which it carries out, an inviolable law for which every event within this reality is merely a means to an end. That’s when I thought about entropy.

According to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the entropy of a system always increases, which implies that in any thermodynamic process, there will always be a net loss of heat to the surroundings. While this may seem quite straightforward(for example, any electric device always generates some amount of heat), not many pause to wonder about what this might entail on the Grand Scheme of Things. No matter what you do, heat, or energy, is dissipated. Any transfer of energy results in some of it being expended to heat up the rest of the universe.

Maybe this is the ultimate function of the Code: to increase the chaos in the universe. Extending this principle, it is also irrefutable to believe that the sole purpose of life is to accelerate the rate of entropy change. Though life is essentially the organisation of molecules to form a complex structure, it maintains this state by breaking down chemical bonds and forming new ones, with a net release of energy.

Living organisms have some innate characteristics: propagating life and avoiding death. The greater the number of living things, the quicker the dissipation of energy stored in ‘food sources’. Even those traits we consider to be human do not violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics; Our predisposition to exploration, discovery, and even our collective morality seem to abide by this law. We are nothing but Entropy Engines in the Entropy Factory that is Earth, churning out energy into the cold, cold emptiness of space.

Or

Perhaps that isn’t how the Universe works. If the entropy of a system is always poised to increase, how were quarks, the building blocks of protons and neutrons created, when they could have existed in the more scattered, chaotic form of electromagnetic radiation?

Another idea I’ve been dabbling with, which possibly answers this anomaly, is Le Châtelier’s principle on a cosmological scale. According to the principle, a change in any of the factors that determine the equilibrium conditions of a system will cause the system to change in such a manner so as to reduce or to counteract the effect of the change.

There could be a state of equilibrium between energy and its more concentrated mass-bearing forms. When the universe expands, energy will tend to spread itself out, akin to how water gets vaporised in vacuum to generate evenly distributed water vapour, and when the universe contracts, it will tend to condense into dense ingots of energy: matter.

Our universe has been expanding ever since the Big bang, so to us it seems that energy will always be dissipated. Maybe if the Universe contracts in the future, this inviolable law will become an impossibility, and there will always be a gain in energy in any process from its surroundings, or a net decrease in entropy.

For all we know, the Universe may be undergoing a cyclic expansion and contraction of space-time, with multiple Big Bangs in the middle, and between these alternate epochs, the laws of nature differ vastly.

However, there is no way either of these theories can ever be proved or disproved. All we can do is hypothesise and create mathematical models to figure out the workings of our complex existence.

-Ishaan Mishra

28th April, 2020 Note:

A recent article published by UNSW, Australia, suggests through findings that the laws of physics may not be uniform throughout the universe, and may depend on time and even direction. Check it out here.