The heat death of the universe will never happen

Tomer Barack
Jul 29, 2017 · 1 min read

The heat death of the universe is the asymptotic limit of our universe given the 2nd law of thermodynamics.

The 2nd law drives the matter density to organize in an homogeneous (“boring”) manner — to reach equilibrium — equal spread of matter.

It’s easy to see that the universe will never reach equilibrium. I basically emphasize that it’s asymptotic.

Assumptions:

  1. Flat infinite universe
  2. Limited information transfer velocity (“the speed of light”)
  3. Matter density fluctuations in every length scale

Given these 3 assumptions, in each point in time there will be a length scale large enough such that the density fluctuations in that scale hadn’t enough time to reach equilibrium.

It means that in each point in time there will be dynamics toward equilibrium.

Life emerges as a result of a system that try to achieve equilibrium which means that theoretically life can form in every point in time.

The composition of these life forms won’t necessarily be molecules like we know them but may be what we call today galaxies.

Tomer Barack

Written by

Theoretical neuroscientist

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