Entropic Time — A Capella Science

Based on “The Longest Time” by Billy Joel

Whoa arrow of entropic time

Whoa arrow of entropic

If you made a scrambled egg tonight

There’d be no return to yolk and white

And when it’s fried you

Can’t turn it back to raw food

That is the arrow of entropic time

Structure decomposes ’til it’s gone

Hot spots cool and entropy grows on

My room was cleaner

Now looks like Godzilla’s been there

Not my fault; blame it on entropic time

Whoa arrow of entropic time

Whoa arrow of entropic

Stars explode and leaves turn brown and fall

That’s thermodynamics’ second Law

But from a deep view

That doesn’t need to be true

Time symmetry precludes entropic time

Maybe this won’t last very long

Our cosmos’s light

A fluctuation

In that case it’s probable we are

A brain without a jar

Decomposed in a moment

Who knows if that’s true and I’ll be gone

Thermalized before you hear this song

I’ll take my chances

Though I can’t disprove these answers

That there’s a reason for entropic time

One must go right back to the start

The order from whence all things fell apart

All life hinges on that state that was

We hope to find its cause

But it’s more than we know now

Maybe there’s a time-symmetric space

Birthing big bangs all over the place

That then disperse as

New baby universes

With their own direction of entropic time

Whoa arrow of entropic time

Whoa arrow of entropic time