Energy

[Darwinian]

@Dar- exactly what do you feel happens at maximum entropy within this closed system then? Would time still be in effect as energy has stopped flowing? Without causality what would happen in the closed system?

Firstly, I'm not even sure that it is possible for maximum entropy to be reached. The trouble is that it just might be that in an ever expanding universe the point of maximum entropy accelerates faster that the universe can gain entropy.

But anyway, there will come a time when all the energy in the universe is so evenly distributed that it becomes almost indistinguishable from the pre-inflationary universe and just perhaps, given enough time, the whole system will undergo another 'big bang' and off we go again.

The only fly in the ointment of this theory is gravity. In the pre-inflationary state, gravity is still an important force and so entropy will be very low, however, in the heat death scenario, gravity plays no real part at all and everything is in thermal equilibrium so perhaps the universe will stay in a frozen and motionless state for eternity, not that eternity will have any meaning as if nothing ever happens then time has no meaning either.

Personally I think the branes will collide again at some point, as they have been doing for an eternity and the whole think will start again.