No, the Universe Is Not on Our Side

In the 1990 “pale blue dot” photograph that Carl Sagan asked NASA to take, we see the potential of a negative answer to Bernard Lonergan’s question to renew American public life. For Sagan, the isolation of the Earth in the cosmic vastness “underscores our responsibility to deal kindly with each other” and preserve our planet. The conclusion that the universe is not on our side is supported by numerous features of reality: lifeless matter, knowledge limited to the senses, death, decline, the vagaries of history, entropy of the universe, and more. We can accept living in this no. The universe is not hostile, merely neutral. Several thinkers show the way forward, especially John Gray. We can practice Simon Critchley’s faith of the faithless. The instrumental thought of Randy Barnett demonstrates how to construct healthy institutions. Anthony Kronman reminds us that our lives are meaningful only because of our mortality.

L’Écriture du Dieu : Libération de la pensée humaine des banalités telluriques

Dans "L’Écriture du Dieu”, Borges nous présente Tzinacan, le dernier prêtre de la pyramide de Qaholom, torturé et emprisonné. Armé de sa persévérance contemplative, il lutte pour se délivrer des entraves matérielles de sa prison et de son corps martyrisé par d’interminables années de captivité. Afin d’atteindre un affranchissement corporel et moral définitif, il entreprend la quête d’une formule fatidique de quatorze mots dont chacun contient toute l’entropie de l’univers. Mais avant d’y parvenir, il doit passer par des épreuves liées à toutes sortes de labyrinthes effrayants : depuis ses propres souvenirs, ses réflexions sur la vie et sur le langage, jusqu’aux rêves du sable, étouffants, emboités et infinis. Ces cauchemars le poussent à changer de stratégie dans sa recherche de l’énigmatique formule céleste qui lui donnerait tous les pouvoirs sur les autres humains à condition de la prononcer, mais la survenue de l’union avec le divin lui fit oublier sa propre identité ainsi que toutes ses préoccupations telluriques. Submergé par la béatitude, il s’enfonce définitivement dans l'oubli éternel pour partager avec tous les êtres un monde anonyme et infini. In "The Writing of God'', Borges introduces us to Tzinacán who is the last priest of the pyramid of Qaholom. Tortured and imprisoned, yet armed with his contemplative perseverance, he struggles to free himself from the material shackles of his prison and his body was martyred by endless years of confinement. In order to reach a definitive physical and moral emancipation, he embarks on a quest for a fateful formula of fourteen words, each of which contains all the entropy of the universe. Before succeeding, he must go through numerous trials in terrifying labyrinths. This ranges from his own memories, his reflections on life and on language, to the dreams of sand, stifling, interlocking, and infinite. These nightmares pushed him to change his strategy in his quest for the enigmatic celestial formula that would give him ultimate power over other humans, so long as he pronounces it. His union with the divine, however, made him forget his own identity as well as all his telluric worries. Overcome by bliss, he sinks into eternal oblivion thus sharing with all beings an anonymous and infinite world.

Evolution of the universe from the perspective of entropy and information

Entropy is a key concept widely used in physics and other fields. At the same time, the meaning of entropy with different names and the relationship among them are confusing. In this paper, we discuss the relationship among the Clausius entropy, Boltzmann entropy and information entropy and further show that the three kinds of entropy are equivalent to each other to some extent. Moreover, we point out that the evolution of the universe is a process of entropy increment and life originates from the original low entropy of the universe. Finally, we discuss the evolution of the entire universe composed of the cosmological horizon and the space surrounded by it and interpret the entropy as a measure of information of all microstates corresponding to a certain macrostate. Under this explanation, the thermodynamic entropy and information entropy are unified and we can conclude that the sum of the entropy of horizon and the entropy of matter in the space surrounded by the horizon does not decrease with time if the second law of thermodynamics holds for the entire universe.

Thermodynamic constraints on matter creation models

Entropy is a fundamental concept from Thermodynamics and it can be used to study models on context of Creation Cold Dark Matter (CCDM). From conditions on the first ($$\dot{S}\ge 0$$ S ˙ ≥ 0 ) (throughout the present work we will use dots to indicate time derivatives and dashes to indicate derivatives with respect to scale factor) and second order ($$\ddot{S}<0$$ S ¨ < 0 ) time derivatives of total entropy in the initial expansion of Sitter through the radiation and matter eras until the end of Sitter expansion, it is possible to estimate the intervals of parameters. The total entropy ($$S_{t}$$ S t ) is calculated as sum of the entropy at all eras ($$S_{\gamma }$$ S γ and $$S_{m}$$ S m ) plus the entropy of the event horizon ($$S_h$$ S h ). This term derives from the Holographic Principle where it suggests that all information is contained on the observable horizon. The main feature of this method for these models are that thermodynamic equilibrium is reached in a final de Sitter era. Total entropy of the universe is calculated with three terms: apparent horizon ($$S_{h}$$ S h ), entropy of matter ($$S_{m}$$ S m ) and entropy of radiation ($$S_{\gamma }$$ S γ ). This analysis allows to estimate intervals of parameters of CCDM models.

Entropy and Time

The idea that entropy is associated with the “arrow of time” has its roots in Clausius’s statement on the Second Law: “Entropy of the Universe always increases.” However, the explicit association of the entropy with time’s arrow arises from Eddington. In this article, we start with a brief review of the idea that the “increase in entropy” is somehow associated with the direction in which time increases. Then, we examine three different, but equivalent definitions of entropy. We find that none of these definitions indicate any hint of a relationship between entropy and time. We can, therefore, conclude that entropy is a timeless quantity. We also discuss the reasons as to why some scientists went astray in associating entropy with time’s arrow. Finally, we shall discuss Boltzmann’s H-Theorem, which is viewed by many as a proof of the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

Entropy Production and the Maximum Entropy of the Universe

The entropy of the observable universe has been calculated as Suni ~ 10104 k and is dominated by the entropy of supermassive black holes. Irreversible processes in the universe can only happen if there is an entropy gap ΔS between the entropy of the observable universe Suni and its maximum entropy Smax: ΔS = Smax − Suni. Thus, the entropy gap ΔS is a measure of the remaining potentially available free energy in the observable universe. To compute ΔS, one needs to know the value of Smax. There is no consensus on whether Smax is a constant or is time-dependent. A time-dependent Smax(t) has been used to represent instantaneous upper limits on entropy growth. However, if we define Smax as a constant equal to the final entropy of the observable universe at its heat death, Smax ≡ Smax,HD, we can interpret T ΔS as a measure of the remaining potentially available (but not instantaneously available) free energy of the observable universe. The time-dependent slope dSuni/dt(t) then becomes the best estimate of current entropy production and T dSuni/dt(t) is the upper limit to free energy extraction.

Birth of the GUP and its effect on the entropy of the universe in Lie-N-algebra

In this paper, the origin of the generalized uncertainty principle (GUP) in an [Formula: see text]-dimensional theory with Lie-[Formula: see text]-algebra is considered. This theory which we name Generalized Lie-[Formula: see text]-Algebra (GLNA)-theory can be reduced to [Formula: see text]-theory with [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. In this theory, at the beginning, two energies with positive and negative signs are created from nothing and produce two types of branes with opposite quantum numbers and different numbers of timing dimensions. Coincidence with the birth of these branes, various derivatives of bosonic fields emerge in the action of the system which produce the [Formula: see text] GUP for bosons. These branes interact with each other, compact and various derivatives of spinor fields appear in the action of the system which leads to the creation of the GUP for fermions. The previous predicted entropy of branes in the GUP is corrected as due to the emergence of higher orders of derivatives and different number of timing dimensions.

Estimate of energy constituents of the universe in ΛCDM

We propose that the Hubble law can be viewed as the de Broglie relation on a cosmic scale. We show how the entropy of the Universe can be estimated in the ΛCDM model and its extended version, and how the quest for the maximal entropy leads to the energy constituents of the current Universe.

Expanding Universe with a Variable Cosmological Term

We propose a model of expansion of the universe in which a minimal, ‘quantised’ rate is dependent upon the value of the cosmological constant Λ in Einstein’s field equations, itself not a constant but a function of the size and the entropy of the universe. From this perspective, we offer an expression which relates Hubble’s constant with the cosmological constant.