Hard to wrap my mind around this one. Anyone have any good analogies that fit?
In: 761
Before the Big Bang, in whatever way the concept of “before” makes sense, reality existed in a state of maximum entropy, not unlike what it will be after its heat death. Energy existed, but was maximally spread out and uniform: there were no differences anywhere, and so nothing could happen, not even matter. Time and space had no meaning.
Then, for reasons we don’t understand, entropy suddenly dropped in a region of this space-less space. Energy very suddenly concentrated in one very small part of reality. This was not the Big Bang: this was the condition that gave rise to it. Now that there was a difference in energies between one part of reality and another part, things could happen. Time and space took on meaning.
In the next instant -actually the *first* instant- that part of reality began the long, slow process of cooling down to rejoin the rest of reality. *This* is what we who are inside this universe perceive as the Big Bang. Despite the name, it wasn’t an explosion -it was the universe beginning to cool- and that’s the key to understanding why it happened everywhere at once.
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