PEOPLE sometimes call the big bang 鈥渢he creation,鈥� but this is a serious misnomer. The universe has never ceased to be creative. The elaborate universe we observe today 鈥� dazzling in its richness, diversity and complexity 鈥� didn鈥檛 spring into being ready-made. Rather, it emerged gradually, over billions of years, through a long succession of self-organising and self-complexifying processes.
In fact, the universe began in an exceptionally bland state, a state of thermodynamic equilibrium, as evidenced by the near-perfect uniformity of the radiation left over from its fiery birth. Most cosmologists believe that even this near-featureless state was preceded by something simpler still 鈥� perhaps little more than rapidly expanding empty space.
But the dull, uniform distribution of matter was primed to set off a chain reaction of creative processes. Gravity pulls matter together, so the spread-out initial distribution was inherently unstable, and slight irregularities in the density of material were quickly amplified. In this manner gravity sculpted complex cosmic structures, and by a process of slow accretion galaxies emerged from the smoothly distributed gases. The emergence of life on Earth, and the slow evolution of multicellularity, complex behaviour, and eventually intelligence, is just a small branch of the cosmic creativity that began with the big bang.
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Viewed on a cosmological scale, the history of the universe appears to be one of increasing complexification. This seems at odds with the second law of thermodynamics, according to which all physical processes irreversibly degenerate 鈥� the universe is inexorably dying even as it blossoms.
But there is no contradiction between these two universal trends 鈥� the creative and the destructive 鈥� because every structure that emerges in the universe is paid for in the currency of entropy. Luckily, the cosmic kitty is far from empty. Although the universe is noticeably 鈥渞unning down鈥� as stars burn their fuel and die, there is enough useful energy left for the cosmos to create complex phenomena for many trillions of years to come.
Still, while nature鈥檚 creativity does not conflict with the second law, it is not explained by it either. It is easy to imagine a universe which irreversibly degenerates without doing anything exciting on the way. Yet our universe creates stars, snowflakes, clouds, rainforests and people. What is the source of this astonishing creativity?
Physicists are far from knowing just what it takes to create order out of chaos. They cannot point to specific characteristics in the laws of physics as 鈥渢he source of creativity鈥�. It is not even clear that the whole story lies within the known laws. Some scientists suspect there are undiscovered laws, or overarching principles, at work, coaxing clod-like particles of matter toward organised complexity. Sometimes the hypothesised 鈥減rinciple of increasing complexity鈥� is called the fourth law of thermodynamics.
One thing is clear. The simplicity of the primordial universe ensured its eventual complexity. Only these bare beginnings contain such immense creative potential: cosmic creativity was forged in the big bang. Once sentient beings like us emerged, a whole new phase of creativity came with it. Through art, science and technology, humans are refashioning the world. Who can say how far mental creativity will help shape the cosmos?
