Non-scientific hypothesis: The universe’s initial state was a singularity as postulated by the big bang theory, a state of minimal entropy. As per thermodynamics, entropy has been, is, and will be increasing steadily from that point until precisely 10^40 years from the Big Bang, at which point the universe will cease to exist with no warning whatsoever.
Though this hypothesis is very arbitrary (the figure “10^40 years” has roughly 300 bits of entropy), I figure it explains our observations at least 300 bits better than the “vanilla heat death hypothesis”: The universe’s initial state was . . . a state of minimal entropy. It reaches maximal entropy very quickly compared to the amount of time it spends in maximal entropy, and as a result effectively has no order.
Non-scientific hypothesis: The universe’s initial state was a singularity as postulated by the big bang theory, a state of minimal entropy. As per thermodynamics, entropy has been, is, and will be increasing steadily from that point until precisely 10^40 years from the Big Bang, at which point the universe will cease to exist with no warning whatsoever.
Though this hypothesis is very arbitrary (the figure “10^40 years” has roughly 300 bits of entropy), I figure it explains our observations at least 300 bits better than the “vanilla heat death hypothesis”: The universe’s initial state was . . . a state of minimal entropy. It reaches maximal entropy very quickly compared to the amount of time it spends in maximal entropy, and as a result effectively has no order.