[deleted]
"Why do events unfold in one temporal order and essentially
never in reverse?"
Dear Brian Greene,
There are two assumptions we make that must be discarded in order for the arrow of time to be fully understood. The first assumption is that all regions of the universe in our experience are evolving forward in time. It is easy then to recognize that time is moving both forward and backward. Gravity for example is time moving backward. The most simple conclusion one can make about gravity is that it is trying to create dense past-like conditions. If gravity were to win the battle with cosmological expansion time would in a very fundamental way be moving into the past, toward the early conditions of the big bang. Stars and galaxies are pockets of time moving backwards. In opposition, expansion is time moving forward. The illusion of a single arrow of time arises from the dominance of this direction of time, even though time is always moving in multiple directions. Expansion is obviously moving conditions toward the extreme state of a perfectly flat empty space, i.e., the physics of absolute zero, more evidently so today due to accelerating expansion.
The second modern day assumption arises from the second law. The cosmos is "not" becoming increasingly disordered. Entropy, the usable energy in the universe is certainly ever increasing, however, the universe is moving away from one kind of order, the extreme of infinite density, and is moving toward a whole other kind of order, the perfect symmetry of zero. Zero is of course balance, and balance is a powerful kind of order.
These two assumptions out of the way, and the zero in our future properly acknowledged, we can in the most simple of terms unite all the forces and features of the universe with the flow of time, because the universe as we know it is the result of time flowing in multiple directions simultaneously.
Like particles repel while oppositely charged particles attract. As plain and simple as gravity can be, the balancing force of electromagnetism is time or conditions moving increasingly nearer to the balance, neutrality, and symmetry of absolute zero. Electromagnetism is the direct influence of a future collision with zero. Cosmological expansion and electromagnetism are both products of time moving forward, while gravity and the strong force are both time moving backwards. The strong force is in simple terms the gravity of the atomic world, holding together the mass of the nucleus. The only threat to the strong force is the weak force. The weak force results of the future necessity of breaking down all complex atomic structure in the colder stages of a future super symmetry and entanglement, similar to the big rip but more graceful.
There is a dominate direction of time in the direction of zero because absolute zero is the inevitable balance between all positives and negatives, or all possible states. All universes probabilistically (naturally) move toward zero and consequently all time naturally traces backwards toward ever increasing states of imbalance, until history reaches the state where the pendulum is swung all the way to one side, i.e., positive or negative, true for all observers. The big bang is perfectly positive (infinitely dense). Of course the perfect division of positive and negative is very ordered and each side has very high symmetry, but relative to zero the two states are the ultimate asymmetry. Each is half of the whole.
There are also time directions adjacent (at right angles to) the axis between the dense (or purely positive) singularity in our past (Alpha) and the zero in our future (Omega). It could be said the first axis is pregnant with the possibilities of a second axis. Adjacent the gradient of density there exists an axis between extremities of smooth and lumpy. Adjacent that axis there exists extremes of orderliness and irregularity or chaos. In dominantly traveling the axis from Alpha to zero, time is probabilistically bound to the mid point or balance between both adjacent axes. The smooth and lumpy axis manages the lumpiness the early universe, the distribution of galaxies, while the orderly and chaotic axis (not to be confused with order/disorder) causes the short-time dissipation of heat and matter toward thermal equilibrium in one direction, while it encourages orderly structures such as spiral galaxies and lattice structure in the other direction. Essentially we exist in between two great powers, imbalance and balance.
Today we perceive an inexplicable conflict between the greater probability for disorder and forces of nature which seem to govern and create order in complete defiance of probability. There is no such conflict. This is the most probable universe.
Gevin Giorbran
everythingforever.com