had not heard this word, and said so.
Matter and energy were nothing, came from nothing, and very much want to be so again. Energy craves diffusion; a blessed disorder, then ever on to an inert state of complete rest.
For all their intellectualizing, the boys had never engaged this notion. Nathan struggled to recall a lecture from Jeremy on the subject and felt a small sense of pride to find he could not. The Knight stepped back and bowed with a dramatic sweep of his arm.
Death appeared before them. As always, the eye-sockets betrayed nothing, and Nathan was saddened to realize he not longer looked for a sign of recognition there. A page snicked over.
Physics for their own sake need not concern us, Nathan. Only physics in relation to his role in the universe.
Entropy is the innate quality of energy to disperse, to seek release from its bonds. We shall age and die, the mountains will rot into sand, the universe itself will, after a billion times billion years, become an abyssal cold, the very atoms beguiled by entropy.
“So everything will just fade away,” said Nathan.
The Knight nodded.
“And there’ll be nothing at all.”
Another solemn lowering of the faceplate. Were there eyes discernible in the metal slits there as the shadows leapt across their span? Nathan could not decide. He regarded Death for a moment, feeling like he was at school and called to write on the blackboard.
“And then Death will have won,” he said.
The Knight stroked his helmet where the temple might be thought to lie. The book revealed these words:
There is a finite amount of matter in the universe. Therefore there is a finite amount of potential energy in the universe. Therefore, life itself has a finite potential. Therefore so does Death, Nathan.
In seeming emphasis, the Knight swung his heel into the dust, which sprayed in a reddish font against his armour.
Life arose from scattered elements that had no reason to band together to make you; they are merely evidence of matter’s inherent tendency to spontaneously organize complex systems. In the Universe’s span, only a certain number of things will ever be able to live, and thus only a certain number will ever be able to die.
Nathan could follow this logic.
If life and death do not hold a limitless potentiality; they are as subject to the laws of thermodynamics as an apple falling from a tree. The Big Bang was the entering into being of matter from a state of non-being. There it was, an infinitely dense particle containing all the potential matter that would ever be … ever need to be.
Nathan looked at the Knight and nodded his understanding. He saw now that the dozen or so breathing-holes, as he imagined them to be, perforated only one half of the Knight’s visor. The boy asked why this might be. As the gauntlet rose, the Knight mimed a cutting notion at his helmet. Again, another page flicked into view.
Most opponents, being right-handed, will tend to concentrate their attack upon your left. Therefore, any weakness in the metal is to be avoided on that side, and the breaths, as we call them, are indeed that.
“I see,” said Nathan. He imagined commanding Death to create a squadron of men-at-arms to attack the Knight and test the veracity of this principle, but thought better of it.
“So … at the Big Bang, all the stuff that would be around, ever, was made.”
The Knight nodded.
“And you say that only so many things can happen or be in the universe.”
Another page.
There is a finite possible number of ways that matter can be arranged. When did you last clean your room?
Nathan laughed.
“A month ago, I think,” he grinned.
Let us imagine whether you put your jeans back in a drawer or stuffed them under the bed, and maybe also put a basketball beside them, and a single sock besides. It follows then that even imagining all the outlandish configurations of clothes, toys and furniture, there is a physical limit to the possible outcomes.
“I can see that too,” nodded the boy.
So then the universe. It has space for around 10 to the power of 118 subatomic particles. Let me express that as a whole number : 10 with one hundred and eighteen zeroes after it. Here, let us see :
The next page indeed revealed the number thus :
10,000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000000000000000000000000000
0000
Nathan snorted.
“You might as well say a Gazillion or something.”
The Knight balled a fist and lightly rapped his upper leg defence with the brass-shod knuckles. A page turned.
Not at all. This prediction arose from a physicist called Max Tegmark, and I would not consider him to be a man to deal in Gazillions. This is a number of some significance, for it leads directly to his next assertion : All of those 10,118 particles can only be arranged a certain number of ways, just like your room. The number of ways they can be arranged is 2 to the power of 10,118. That is 2 with 10,118 zeroes after it. Let me express this number :
The book flicked ten pages in quick succession, Nathan seeing the zeroes clustered in such uniform cascade as to be merely a pattern on the paper, seemingly devoid of meaning:
2,00000000000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
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‘Now that looks more like a Gazillion!” exclaimed Nathan.
Now, the next page read, that this number represents every possible combination of particles within the observable universe. Within that number is the potentiality of anything you can imagine - worlds where elephants walk about in top hats, you are born as exactly as you in every respect except with a tail or the clouds rain spiders instead of water. Everything is both likely and certain within that number.
Nathan replied that this made sense, considering how large it was.
Following simple probability then, all possible universes will play themselves out. Imagine a large enough space, say a box –
Nathan saw the hyphen appear, and realised just at that moment he was about to interject. Had the appearance of that punctuation mark spurred his thought, or the other way around? He wiped his brow briefly.
“Or a coal bunker,” he murmured, still somewhat chastened by the hyphen.
The Knight nodded, and pointed to the book's new page.
- indeed, a coal bunker, one packed with all the possible universes containing all the possible arrangements of particles. This is again an almost incomprehensibly vast number, but again not infinite : 10 to the power of 10,118 metres across. Beyond this box, universes will – must – repeat themselves. Therefore, Nathan, in a universe at that approximate distance this conversation, such as it is, is happening right now.
The concept confused Nathan and he told the Knight this.
Think of your room again. We construct a lattice framework – not unlike the Ancestral Hall – full of doors. Behind each door are versions of your room, in which every possible configuration of particles occurs. It will be a structure many trillions of kilometres wide and tall.
“And I wouldn't want to clean it!” cried Nathan, smiling.
Of course not! Read the following words, as I say, almost incomprehensibly vast, but ultimately finite.
“So … like an arrangement of every different way the messy room could be.”
Yes. Remember, we are contemplating the re-arrangement of atomic particles, not mere clothes and furniture. Open a random door, and the particles within would be so dispersed as to make the space within appear completely empty. Open the next one along, and you stand there looking back at yourself, with all the memories you have right at this moment, because of course you are merely a certain arrangement of particles. But to re-iterate : it is a finite structure.
The notion unsettled Nathan and he looked away from the page for a