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The universe, throughout its existence, seems trying to minimize all the things (or trying to find most simple/easiest state/way or Nash equilibrium, whatever you call it).

According to the second law of thermodynamics it seems that universe converges to a really big mass where everything will have the same temperature.

Or when water-drop falls straight to the ground, it will always have a minimal area.

Or when something falls to the ground, it will always fall in the shortest distance.

It seems that the existence of universe breaking the essential rule of universe (to find the simplest state or way to do it). Why universe exists at all? It seems that its existence must be reducing the entropy somewhere. Or is it universe some kind of anomaly in the outer-universe behind the mirror?

Isn't the universe a hypocrite?

user1518183
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  • I don't see how hypocrisy fits in this description. – Frank Hubeny Apr 03 '18 at 21:40
  • You are imbuing it with intentionality. The entropy in the universe seems to have come from somewhere, like the energy. But may be from somewhere not 'causally linked', outside our universes time-line and event horizon. The quantum formulation of 2nd law suggests everything could just be a huge fluctuation, of an average zero energy-max entropy state. We know the rule is not absolute, but bends temporarily. – CriglCragl Apr 03 '18 at 21:44
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    @FrankHubeny I think the author is being humorous. The universe asks everyone else to follow minimization principles while it expands at rates that appear to violate just about every know law out there. – njs Apr 03 '18 at 21:46
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    Hi, welcome to Philosophy SE. Please visit our Help Center to see what questions we answer and how to ask, your "question" is not a good fit. You also seem to misunderstand the second law of thermodynamics, even if the heat death of the universe does occur, which is controversial, it will not be "a really big mass where everything will have the same temperature". – Conifold Apr 03 '18 at 22:19
  • The universe is not a person, nor does it have agency. Since agency is required to be a hypocrite, the answer is NO. – MichaelK Apr 04 '18 at 06:53

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It seems that the second law of thermodynamics holds. We haven't seen any evidence against it, but we've never come across a system which is perfectly in equilibrium.

It seems like a water droplet flies through the air, it will have a minimal surface area. However, in practice this is not true. The droplet will always be oscillating with a little energy. That energy approaches 0 as damping effects reduce it, but the perfect water droplet shape is a limit, not something actually achieved.

It seems like things fall to the ground in a straight line, but we know that's just a statistical gimick. The object is being battered left and right by air molecules and actually takes a wobbly path that's really close to straight, at least when viewed by our eyes.

It seems you have taken your observations about what seems to be true and come to the conclusion that these things are true. Thus it seems the universe is a hypocrite only because you seem to believe it to be true. We may simply not yet have written down the perfect laws to describe the universe. Or perhaps they cannot be written.

It seems to me the universe may just be spiting you ;-)

Cort Ammon
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  • FYI: The second law of thermodynamics is not really a law but a statistical suggestion. For sufficiently small systems, violations are observable: https://phys.org/news/2016-10-quantum-violate-law-thermodynamics.html – njs Apr 04 '18 at 02:07