It is simply a huge mistake to imagine the cosmos as rushing from order to chaos. We know today in science that the expansion of the universe is accelerating directly toward absolute zero. The only question is whether time reaches zero in infinite or finite (big rip) time. Absolute zero is neither chaos nor disorder. Absolute zero is perfect balance.
If we limit ourselves to thinking purely in terms of order and disorder (asymmetry) as Boltzmann did when he developed the statistical side of the second law, then it seems like our cosmos is becoming increasingly disordered. However, in physics and cosmology we observe and study a universe that is constructed of positives and negatives and neutrals. There is always an anti-particle for every particle, there is always a perfectly inverse world of stable anti-matter. Hence, if we depart from Boltzmann and think in terms of positive, negative and neutral, we logically expect that ultimately the whole of all possible states is symmetrical rather than asymmetrical.
Since 1998 we have known the universe is expanding toward zero! The cosmos begins all mass and energy and no space, and seems now to end all space and no mass or energy. Absolute zero is out there, it is possibly the most basic axiom of physics and mathematics, and a state of zero is certainly not disorder, it is extreme balance.
Unfortunately I missed Greene's talk but attended Stephen Hawking's presentation in Seattle recently. Hawking showed two slides, one of a puzzle fit together which he labeled with one word "order", and then he showed a puzzle broken apart, labeling it "disorder", and then suggested that the puzzle cannot probabilistically fit itself together. Sure in Boltzmann's ideology this appears to be logically and probabilistically true. But if the overall structure of all possible states for the universe is positive-neutral-negative, as logically it must be, then the statement that the puzzle cannot fit itself together is probabilistically untrue. If swung to one side a pendulum exists in a state of imbalance. Set free the pendulum swings until it returns to a state of rest or balance. In this way the perfect puzzle (absolute zero, perfect symmetry) can fit itself together. A balanced state can create or cause itself, at least in this sub-system of space-time.
Today we think the direction of time is away from order to disorder, but that ideology is based upon a hidden principle, which is that time will try to find an ultimate balance in the space of all possible states, so we assume that since there are more disordered states, time will probabilistically be driven in that direction. So we are imagining that time is trying to find a balance that supposedly doesn't exist. We might try to define absolute zero or empty space as the most disordered (boundary) state, but then time would move toward some balance between the most ordered state (Alpha of the big bang) and absolute zero. Except the universe is clearly not moving toward any such mid point, rather time is now accelerating toward zero, as shown in the first attached image. Why? The most obvious conclusion would be that absolute zero is the balance of all possible states, and that our modern conception of the big picture is simply wrong. It may seem that systems are moving from order to disorder in short time durations, but in the deep time of cosmic evolution, all systems are moving from imbalance to balance. The big picture is not asymmetric, it is of course symmetric. How could it be otherwise?
If we evaluate the direction of time from a top-down (timeless) perspective then it is necessary to imagine the space of all possible states as having three boundaries, all positive, all negative and all neutral, as shown in the second attached image. The image portrays the Alpha singularity in our past as having a bulk positive charge. In this model Alpha is simply one state within the timeless space of all possible states. What we call time begins like a pendulum swung all the way to one side, in a state of highest possible imbalance. Hence time doesn't have to originate from a fluctuation in a vacuum. Extreme imbalance is simply what exists in the past. We all know that time probabilistically will not travel from balance to imbalance. Once at rest, the pendulum remains at rest. Perfect symmetry remains perfect, it doesn't suddenly fracture and create a sub-system. The only possible natural direction of time is away from imbalance toward balance. There is no missing anti-matter, it exists on the other side of a membrane that separates our universe from a parallel inverse partner. Logically we should expect imbalance, and expect to find the most extreme state of imbalance in our past, and only expect the most ordered state (balance) in our future.
We consider the big bang to be ordered but Alpha is merely one type of order, it is like checkers as the game begins with white pieces on one side divided apart from the black pieces on the other side. In the cosmic game time originates from one side or the other of the duality of positive and negative, and the present of a four dimensional system probabilistically moves toward a more balanced state such as the background of the checkerboard, where black and white pieces, positives and negatives, are positioned in a lattice. The past is merely one type of order which in my book I call grouping order. In the future there exists another kind of order, the perfect symmetry of balance, which I call symmetry order. The lattice structures in chemistry, and electromagnetism in general, are examples of increasing balance, they are in essence our perfectly balanced zero future influencing the present. The puzzle is piecing itself together, which is why our universe is so systematic and orderly, and not disorderly and chaotic.
Gevin Giorbran
http://everythingforever.comAttachment #1: densitygradient.gifAttachment #2: allstatesbig.jpg